Alternate rule idea for D&D. When you fail all your death saves your character decides to give up adventuring and find a more simple life.
— Todd Kenreck (@ToddKenreck) September 4, 2018
Alternate rule idea for D&D. When you fail all your death saves your character decides to give up adventuring and find a more simple life.
— Todd Kenreck (@ToddKenreck) September 4, 2018
where my friends and I share with you
our thoughts and suggestions on how to
game master your role-playing game
I’m your host Satine Phoenix co-creator
of mais Arcana and a dungeon master on
Furies reach today I’d like to talk
about off the cuff homebrew games
[Music]
prepare research notes you’ve heard us
say these things over and over
prepare your game ahead of time come up
with your story arcs and design your
game using the techniques writers use
for story crafting well today you’re
going to turn all that upside down and
discuss how to create adventures for
your players on the spot
no campaign books necessary you don’t
have to be bound by pre-written story
mm-hmm now if you told your players you
want to play Dungeons & Dragons and
they’re familiar with faerun and you’re
say familiar with ever on you can still
run games for them there are many
similarities caves forests dungeons and
the monsters within goblins or expand
its you can pretty much make adventures
in any realm not knowing the world’s
exact details start by getting to know
the characters have the player tell you
the character’s backstory ask them how
they met the other characters these
details can help you get to know what
direction your players want to explore
here they’re starting to create the
story even though they don’t know it one
of the things that helps the illusion is
weaving pieces of the players backstory
into the adventure revealing them one at
a time over time this keeps the players
engaged and gives them more purpose in
the world the thing I love about
off-the-cuff homebrew is that the
players have the freedom to explore
whatever the heck they want maybe you
create some major offense or villains
but essentially you can just drop
adventure seeds in the first session and
allow them to pick up whichever path
interests them maybe they start in a
tavern and a couple people of threads
they can follow or even a simple
bulletin board with jobs they can
explore these are the seeds that unfold
the story over time but these threads
don’t have to be complex you can find
awesome plot hook generators all over
the Internet pick them on the spot or
download your favorites you don’t need
to overthink this part and this is where
improvising comes in handy listening I
can’t stress enough well allow you to
unfold the adventure your players want
one thread can have them help a farmer
which leads to a secret cult conspiracy
which leads to a neighboring army and
spies that leads to all of these things
can be developed on the fly you have the
handbooks you have the internet there
even random generators for NPC
NPC backstories encounters with various
difficulty levels names tables and
monsters I could roll on but instead
let’s discuss this with nur darkest Dave
and Ted from nur Taraki calm yay thank
you guys for coming all the way all the
way across America to come to Los
Angeles and get interviewed by me I’m a
huge fan I’m a huge fan of you guys
thanks for having us
I love your videos because I relate to
what you guys say and one of the cool
things about you is is all the homebrew
stuff you guys talk about and that’s how
I started playing for over a decade
actually almost 20 years I’ve been
playing all homebrew until recently and
that’s pretty much our whole game now
you guys need some more crognard on here
anyway yeah so why homebrew because we
like to create our own things we like to
have our own sandbox and in addition to
that doing homebrew allows you to make
something unique you don’t want to use a
homebrew if you’re just gonna make
another iteration of Forgotten Realms
you want to you want to have your own
Flair your own enjoyment your own
creations in the game yeah so why what
about when you started playing Dungeons
& Dragons and you had to be the game
masters cuz that’s usually how we start
what was it about the role-playing that
made you want to just create on your own
for me it was basically a creative
outlet exactly that I can’t draw but I
can tell stories and I can create things
with my mind and and then share it with
a group of people and in this
collaborative story that we get to tell
with Dungeons & Dragons and other
tabletop role-playing games and from for
me that’s that’s all there was every
game I had been in been in for many
years it was always just homebrew we
didn’t pull out a module we didn’t run
something to somebody else created it
was always just oh well we play in the
world we create so I didn’t know any
better yeah I guess that’s how it works
right so now you guys are experienced
game masters and you don’t have to
prepare so much in our pre-interview you
talked a bit about
the planting of seeds and using a couple
sentences sure you know when I started I
wrote everything out but as I gained
more and more experience what I really
learned was to just listen to my players
they’re gonna they’re gonna fuel your
game with tons of ideas if you just
listen you know I heard the saying once
you’ve got two years one mouth so you
should be listening twice as much as you
talk yeah and and with that the phrase
what do you want to do is incredibly
powerful and if you’ve got decent
players they’re gonna sit back and
they’re gonna give you what it is that
they want to do
if you speak spoon-feed them exactly
what they want they’re gonna be happy
with the session okay so tell me some
what are the things what are the things
that what are some seeds that you plant
in them I don’t plant the seeds they do
you know like the initial thing you know
maybe I put something out there and they
bite on and sometimes they don’t they
needed to get ingredients to create a
cure and they knew they were gonna have
to barter with some hags for it and my
one of my players is like oh this is
gonna be like that fairy tale thing
where I we can’t just buy stuff or trade
stuff they’re gonna want something
that’s meaningful to us and I was like
oh yeah that’s exactly what it’s gonna
be and they ended up walking away with
loose memories and stuff like that and
it’s like Eckerd throughout the whole
entire campaign now okay but then how do
you prepare for even that part where
they have to get ingredients so at what
point did they say I like that I want to
go collect ingredients so okay so
initially they had a problem that they
were dealing with and you know there was
basically a drug lord in their town in
their city and they were looking to stop
him but at the same time the drugs were
turning people into monsters yeah
essentially they you know they were
using this drug called stank made from
traveling i’ts
and if they stopped using it people
would turn into troglodytes so they need
that they needed to cure those people so
did you play in this game I did not this
was a online game that he he runs with
some of our fans it is ton of fun so you
do homebrew online with fans you don’t
actually know them very well no I did
not know him until we started gaming
together so how do you interact with
like how do you
and then learn what they want over
through a screen even that sounds
complicated I’ve always looked at D&D
and gaming as an extension of friendship
right so if I invite you to my table
I’ve invited you to become my friend and
we learned like any for any relationship
you know we build it over time we have a
facebook chat and we talk in there a lot
of times and you know they would send me
information and I take that information
and use it to put back into the game and
that’s always going to happen when you
are at a table in game as well as out of
game information is going to be said and
you can turn that stuff into actual plot
lines and threads based on either
character wishes player wishes or a
combination of the two biggest problem
people bring to us is my players won’t
take my hooks they won’t bite on my
plots and you want to know why because
they’re yours and not theirs switch it
to theirs and you’ll never worry about
that again that’s really good okay so
you have you know you talk to your
character or you talk to the players
about their characters session one you
plant the seeds they want to go in this
direction like yeah awesome oh but they
run into this direction you didn’t
prepare monsters you have your books
with you all right
pulling it right out so there’s a couple
different things that can be done here
number one if you’ve planned that
they’re gonna go off in this direction
and you’ve got bandits that are gonna
you know ambush them they don’t know
what you’ve planned there’s nothing to
say that you couldn’t pick up those
bandits and put them in the direction
that they went you’ve got your material
plan you can still use it it’s just a
matter of where the locations are
worst-case scenario if you’re unwilling
to make that change because it’s you
know based on a certain locale that
they’re not at all right fine
you have might have to improv for a
little bit unless you’re doing a live
streaming game there’s nothing to say
guys hold on saying I wasn’t prepared
for this why don’t you guys go take a
bathroom break I’m gonna spend a few
minutes and and deal with this and you
take a fun you take that time you plan
and you
ready to move on and you know what right
say you had that ambush plan they never
even leave the city what do you do right
they’re not bandits anymore they’re
thugs you know you just changed it up
you know maybe they’re a gang in the end
it’s in the city and they have a beef
with one of the characters because who
knows could be any could be a mistaken
identity anything yeah so being able to
like play it loose and improv is like
pretty much a key element and off the
cuff homebrew so you have your session 1
and your improv in it and now you kind
of know what general thing that they
want you go home and then start
preparing what happens next so the whole
time I’m running the sessions I’m taking
notes right and it could be an MPC they
run it to anything and then I’ll start
feeding that back into the game or
they’ll go back to that NPC or that
location and becomes important to them
and they kind of start telling you
what’s important to them and listen just
keep using and just keep building on it
little by little it might be one or two
words the first time they encounter that
NPC but they encounter him again so now
you add another couple of words so he
just keep building on the belt what you
did before in my in my game I try to
actually encourage player agency
whatever possible and it’s it’s a you
know it’s a city that’s on on the rise
and one of the players throughout there
well I want to go to the place with the
good bread and let’s go cook ok what
what is that called
I didn’t come up with it he did he named
the place he named the guy and and it
was it was great well every session
there after that they’re in town oh we
want to go we want to go back to this
place we want to go talk to that NPC
well the one time because there was this
buildup of this powerful thing he’s not
there
you know something happened so that
encouraged the players to oh no there’s
a change in our normal routine because I
can’t find this guy so you can build on
those NPCs that they interact with and
and want to interact with Oh a time and
time again so essentially your unfolding
an entire world with these players so
you get to play with them
versus having being the narrator of this
of their stories right and that comes to
like the you know that the key point of
you start small and you build out so if
you work on just that one town and those
NPCs that they’re interacting with and
then as the campaign goes goes on and
they’d be given traveling you have more
and more notes you don’t have to build
an entire world in order to play DNA
we’ve we’ve run our paired games out of
the same city for a year and a half
before they really hit any kind of
serious divergent paths running D&D is a
lot like any good show right on TV like
Game of Thrones or Firefly anything like
that where there’s a group dynamic it’s
all about the drama and the tension in
the relationships and if you can focus
on that then like the the encounters in
the combat becomes secondary and I find
that the players get more involved and
more engrossed in those relationships
then what I would might be considered
standard tropes of D&D and I look at it
as DMD is a role-playing game and they
put role-playing before game so I put
that that emphasis far far more in my
games so do you
is it more of a social game that you
guys play or is it combat heavy is it
easier to improv I mean I know my answer
to this but easier for you to improv
social interactions or easier to improv
combat or exploration I can personally
do both I done my sessions I’m looking
for roughly four to five hours one to
two combats for the night and that’s it
and most of my players they really that
they enjoy that that arrangement
socially the social engagement
role-playing exploration these are all
things that our players seem to really
like so we kind of like hone in on them
and I’m always trying to get like a
reaction from them I want them to feel
something you know and the the one game
that we mentioned earlier is the scarlet
sisterhood is great for that because
they’re always doing interesting things
and I just feed that you
the last time we played you know they
found a ghost baby and they want to fix
it right and so like they get they got
hurt really bad because they’re always
trying to fix the monsters and convert
the monsters and a lot of times I let
him do it but every once in a while you
got to give it to them and be like no
this is a monster and it’s a bad thing
but it creates these this dynamic where
there’s like role playing going on and
missed the combat and they have a
problem to solve and they’re trying to
find different solutions are you ready
for the three questions shoot absolutely
pregame House Rules okay so we actually
have a unspoken pregame House rule so
whenever we get a new player in our
table that’s not familiar with the rules
new to Dungeons and Dragons
we’ve instinctively always just sat them
next to a more experienced player and we
just like created this buddy system
where that they can help them with the
mechanics or their character sheet and
it doesn’t take away from the DM or
what’s going on in the game a veteran
player that has has full grasp of the
rules and willingness to aid another
player it’s going to allow the game to
flow that much better because rather
than having to speak up and interrupt
everybody oh what do I do here how do I
do this they can just turn to the friend
next time and saying hey I want to do
this how do I do that or where can I
find this information and it’s a side
small whispered thing that can happen
and it not not interrupt the actual flow
of the game and then a big thing for us
– and we talked about this on our
channel all the time is at the end that
a gateway day we’re just playing a game
if you’re a new GM you know be forgiving
to yourself don’t worry about hopefully
you’re playing with your friends and
they’re just happy to be able to play
the game or maybe you’re taking over the
DMS chair from the previous GM and he’s
happy to be a player now so you know
it’s at the end of game day it’s just a
game you’re not writing a novel
hopefully you’re having fun and then and
that is that is indeed having fun
is a a crucial element to this game
after all we’re playing a big game of
make-believe with rules and if if you’re
doing something that’s detracting from
the fun or you’re not
having fun you know find it find a way
to you know get back in there and that
that’s what that’s what everything is is
about here this one goes to each of you
favorite Jam moment so my feet somebody
to choose from so I’m gonna go in under
a minute
I’m gonna go with when it happened many
many years ago and I was being a
smartass as a GM now my players their
town is being invaded by this giant
Hydra that it’s like half demon half
dragon it’s ready to incinerate Ted’s
character one of the other characters
has a scroll he’s got to make a check
just to even read it of flesh the stone
and I’m like I just laugh at the players
like I need to roll off for on this die
and and I roll it in front dropping a
table and I roll a three and he turns my
big bad monster into a statue in in in
that town in that city like just like as
a straddled the wall all of its heads
like the fire is just about to come out
of its mouth and incinerate Ted’s
character and that was it boom it was
just done this was before legendary
legendary actions and legendary
resistance so it was definitely cool for
me mine is a lot less descriptive I’m a
much more improv DM I tend to run off of
a sentence or two or less when I’m
running for for my game and the one time
I ran a session and the players
absolutely loved it and you know they’re
like oh you know you must have bubble
the ball you spent all this time I’m
like I showed him my notebook and I had
three words written down and I’m like
that’s what I ran off of tonight and he
never pre-planned a session again
because I mean that that’s kind of what
what I tend to get if I if I plan
heavily then the players don’t seem to
have as much fun with it but if I just
improv with it they’re in love with it
so that that’s where I go
tip to the audience could be anything
what is each of your tips to the
audience so we’ve been talking about
homebrew and a lot of improv stuff right
and preparation kind of so a lot of
times you would get asked what is the
right amount of preparation and that is
whatever you need as the GM you know
whether it’s like Ted said I write three
words on a piece of paper or you come up
with a bunch of pre-planned encounters
and maybe maybe they’re not in a
particular order maybe you come up with
rumors and stuff like that whatever
makes it easier for you it makes you
feel comfortable you know you might need
nothing or you might need a toolbox full
of stuff these are strong draw from and
go to in your times of need where like
Ted said hey I need five minutes can you
guys give it to me and you just go
through your toolbox and put some things
in order and boom you’re ready to go so
I would wind up saying you know we
talked about you know don’t get married
to your ideas and and be prepared to
change but on top of that don’t be
afraid to improv don’t be afraid to
change what has already been out there
so if the players want to go in another
direction and you’re you know you’re not
ready for it just give it a shot this is
a worst-case scenario is you’re gaming
with your friends and you know they
might they might not say oh that they
might say this wasn’t your best session
but every session winds up being a
learning experience for a GM you know
you you take every everything that
happened and and build on it that’s how
we build a skill set regardless of what
it is and the same completely holds true
to being a dungeon master thanks for
watching GM tips here on geek & sundry a
big thank you to our guest Dave and Ted
for joining us you can find them on nur
Taraki comm and youtube.com slash nerd
Archy and all the social medias at nerd
Archy I’m Satya Phoenix as always at
setting Phoenix you can ask me questions
to explore on this show at hashtag ask
satine you can find me Sundays at noon
or if an echo on twitch.tv slash maser
Khanna and Tuesday evenings dungeon
mastering on twitch.tv slash D&D and if
you haven’t seen it yet check out SOG is
a Sun read read on project alpha calm
before we go can I ask you gentlemen a
question absolutely
would you please Jam us out of here
certainly after a long journey you and
your party have arrived at the town of
Griffin GAF you find a local tavern you
speak to a man who has a very thick
accent it looks kind of swarthy you
asked for room but he says there’s no
vacancies in his tavern you argue with
him for a little bit then you start
speaking in another language to the
curtain behind him and another voice
comes out in the same language and he
says well we might have something for
you
come with me follow me out of the tavern
we have something off location but close
by he turns he goes down a dark alley
what do you do that was a real la
experience though yes yes it was
[Laughter]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
are my friends and I share with you our
thoughts and suggestions on how to game
master your role-playing game I’m your
host Satine Phoenix co-creator of mais
Arcana and a guild a depth for D&D on
today’s show we have Chris Lindsay from
Wizards of the coast I got a chance to
play in the epic game he wrote for Gary
Khan there were 17 tables separated into
three groups playing three parts of the
battle all of the gems coordinated with
each other through Chris the event
leader major moments are timed and GM’s
are brought in to play the major villain
NBC’s this was so much fun I got to play
a faerie blade singer named ma Gwen
flashin I went to each table three
separate times during the last leg of
the game and they got to try to break
the spell before I broke them after
playing I figured out why people like
these kind of games the players suddenly
became a part of something important to
the world they exist in so today’s theme
is how to make your homebrew game feel
epic
tip number one part of something bigger
in most games you can look forward to
fighting small groups with your players
if you want to make your encounter feel
epic have the group be part of an army
or organization they have people to
report to and perhaps we’ll be able to
call for reinforcements
suddenly the group isn’t alone in the
world and has a reason to feel
responsible for the outcome of the
events tip number two give them a choice
prepare a few different choices for the
players to pick from to be a part of the
larger battle in the epic I experienced
the table’s chose whether to be a part
of the infantry at the frontline in the
air fighting the Goblin airships or
underground fighting in the ritual
chamber each of these choices are
important to the story and will make the
party feel like they’re a major reason
for the success of the overall battle
you can use how they succeed or fail to
gauge how the rest of the battle unfolds
failure doesn’t mean death it could just
mean they didn’t accomplish their goal
on time but all choices have
consequences there are always various
levels of successes and failures play
with these tip number three time to pre
strategize tactics and many encounters
most of our choices are reactionary to
protect ourselves and something
surprises us here you can give your
group time to talk about how they can
work together during the anticipated
battle much like they would do in a war
room let them ask the other NPCs about
their tactics and use skills to find
what their enemies or terrain is like
what advantages they can use and other
bits of information that will encourage
them to think about ways around a
situation this is where I encourage them
by granting triple advantage to two or
more players that go at the same time
and can explain clearly how their moves
would work together the GM is final say
on whether that would work or not you
can get them this time for planning and
remind them they have a much shorter
time to make decisions during the actual
encounter tip number four and counter
pacing timing is everything and timing
in battle is another way to make things
feel epic keep your game moving fast
your players can roll their attacks and
damage at the same time and they should
have their choices ready to go I like to
do a three-two
one countdown for indecisive players I
could roll on but instead let’s jump
into conversation with the architect of
diem skilled head of dandy Adventures
League and the product manager of
Dungeons & Dragons Chris Lindsay hey
thank you for coming I’m so happy I’m
through you are amazing at creating
epics I love your writing your
adventures are so much fun they’re
really wild how how would you recommend
for people to take that epicness and
bring it to their table so the main
thing about an epic adventure is that
there’s a lot more going on than just
what’s happening with the players
themselves right there’s a lot of motion
there’s a lot and you know moving parts
and so forth it’s like the Battle of
Helm’s Deep and so it’s it’s important
to remember as the encounter progresses
are as the adventure progresses to
remind the PCs that there are these
outside elements inside the scope of the
adventure they’re playing and that they
come into play and that they interact
directly with the characters so that
when they have those moments in the game
where they might stumble something might
be there to like pick them up pick them
up yeah give them hope help them out
remind them that that they are part of a
larger squad or larger unit or larger
organization something that that
basically puts them in perspective that
they’re just a very small part of a
larger larger world yeah it’s really
interesting so you don’t think about
that when you’re writing adventures
usually in one shots or even like small
campaigns it’s like alright you’re going
in you’re gonna go and fight a thing but
taking that microcosm that little that
little thing that you do and then having
that effect you know like another group
which affects another group which
affects another group what made you
start developing epics really it all
comes down to movies right you see like
these big big
movies like all way backs like Ben Hur
we had these massive battles and and the
heroes are doing something and then
something huge and unstoppable gets in
their way but from the outside you got
somebody who jumps in and does something
to help them out all of a sudden you’re
past it and you move on and you keep on
going after you’re you know whatever it
is your objective is right but the point
is is that you have that feeling of
scope and scale of being a part of
something so grand and and that you know
you can’t conquer it by yourself but if
you could just do your one little thing
that you need to do that everything will
be okay that’s awesome so you have your
group and they are connected with other
groups yes in the big battle yeah how do
you get them to actually remember that
they’re a part of something bigger for
example if you are playing in the
adventure that we ran at Gary Cohn as
they’re moving along the players might
come up against like a horde of demons
heading their direction and they’re
thinking oh no this is it we’re done
we’re all dead this we can’t we can’t
possibly manage to deal with these
demons right but then all of a sudden
like from out of nowhere a massive wall
of thorns comes up as the druid who’s
like a hundred yards behind them cast
this epic spell and like stops the
demons off just enough so that the
players have to deal with just these
three demons and then they can continue
moving right and then they reminded oh
yeah there’s this guy back there you
said to help us and they know that
they’re a part of this much bigger force
and that other people are actually
looking out for them too at the same
time yeah I mean if I were going to do
an epic I might have the players the way
they interact with the NPC’s would be
how much they help them oh yeah oh yeah
to the NPC’s like well I have these
reinforcements but you’re not very nice
so we’re gonna focus our energies over
here and in a home game that’s totally
possible then a home game I mean even in
Nam Nam Mian is totally possible but
it’s more like we have an alum game
where the dungeon master can really
focus on how the players have interacted
in the past with other characters and I
would be a liar if I didn’t say that a
couple of parties haven’t died
at my hands because they made poor
choices in the past and an npc said and
this is the point where I save you but
time to take a water break
[Laughter]
other ways would be mmm maybe like a
scrying stone to see how the other like
the other side of the battles absolutely
sending stones are also very valuable as
you have like your own mini one-shot
walkie-talkies medieval cell phones
that’s pretty cool that’s where things
like animal messenger also come into
play right you’re there you catch me a
little messenger spell and then like
five rounds later somebody does
something to help you out because they
got the message yeah so you’ve got your
group and they are there fighting and
they’re fighting people are going down
and people are going down as a game
master do you are you the one that says
okay there’s too many people going down
right now I have to send in somebody to
save them I don’t necessarily think of
it as saving them I think of it as using
those elements that are already present
in the game nobody wants to feel like oh
there’s no way I could have possibly
done this without you know this other
NPCs help the players still want to be
even in an epic battle the players still
want to be the focus they want to be the
heroes of the day so it’s again this is
important to remember which NPCs and
which other characters outside of
themselves that they’ve interacted with
and the ones that they’ve had positive
interactions with right are the ones
they’re gonna help them then you can
point back to this person came out to
help you but they would not have done
that if you wouldn’t have been such a
cool person helped them out previously
it’s important to set up those
milestones ahead of time before you get
to the epic like encounter itself so the
Angels swooping in you know guardian
Davis swooping in to like cast healing
over like the entire party just not
enough to bring them all the way up but
enough to like give them two seconds of
hope that they can continue moving on so
mechanically if you’re designing a game
and you want to make the players feel
like the one
thing that they’re doing is the most
important in the epic there were three
different paths that they could take
yeah how do you make each one of those
paths feel like this is this is the
moment that you are saving the day you
have to be really clear that if they
don’t succeed that there are
consequences and you have to make sure
that they understand what those
consequences are ahead of time you I
mean epic scale battles don’t just
happen out of the blue right they didn’t
just go attack the Death Star out of you
know nothing right they all knew what
they were doing they all had a plan and
they all knew what the consequences were
if their part didn’t work so when there
happen when they have that war table
there that one more time but before they
go into this big epic thing you have to
have your NPC generals or whoever it is
that’s in charge from their perspective
explaining very carefully through the
player characters what happens if they
screw up and what happens if they don’t
do that part and it’s gonna be different
for each table for each group if whether
you’re in the air or whether you’re on
the land or whether you’re underground
the consequences will affect what
happens to the other groups dramatically
so you’ve got your group you’re in this
battle and they’re you’ve designed the
adventure to feel really epic how do you
use the environment in each encounter
the environment is actually really
really important because it’s in an epic
encounter everything happens on a grand
scale so in you know in your underground
epic encounter as an example you would
be going through the tunnels and you’re
in tight spaces and then all of a sudden
the telev will open up into this massive
cavern and that’s like thousands of
yards around and you get this feeling
that you have to possibly be deep deep
deep underground because nothing else
would support this in there slag might
syslog mites and there’s a huge lake and
there’s like several like dotted islands
through the lake is you’re looking out
across the thing and then there’s a
buzzing sound and you see the canoes and
you have to get in the canoes but the
whole thing feels so massive and as
you’re rolling across the lake in the
canoes you can see water turning in
various places in the distance as things
are starting to move and
react to your presence and and really
the scope of the environment is is
vastly important if you’re outside like
letting them know that weather exists is
while be important in weather in epic
encounters is never fun it’s never a
sunny bright day you got pour down rain
snow and hail they have to run across
lakes of ice they have to worry about
things breaking underneath them they’re
crawling across like chasms and there’s
big rope bridges that are gonna break
you in second and there’s all these
things swarming around them you just
have to like it’s never gonna be it can
never be fun so that’s interesting
because usually not usually nowadays
people are so into minis and so I feel
like the minis actually keep the battles
very small because you only have a
certain amount of space to move the
figures in but keeping it theater of the
mind gives it that grander scale exactly
because if you get into your
descriptions and by the way for Dungeon
Master’s out there it’s important that
you you write up maybe a handful of
descriptions ahead of time so you know
kind of where the direction you’re going
and it’s perfectly okay to ad-lib off to
the descriptions and go off script and
so forth but just to have something kind
of to base yourself off of is really
kind of key so you you know have that
something to anchor you but but these
are the theme of the mind is perfectly
the best way to go in this case because
nothing evokes the feelings that you’re
gonna have as a player or as a dungeon
master like what’s in your head putting
everything out on to a battle man
totally puts it into a confining space
that has limitations and in epic there’s
no limitations so if you were in battle
and you’re fighting in that immediate
moment then the minis make sense but if
you’re going to the destination or just
just in the description it’s better to
have everyone be present and listening
yeah pay attention
ops pay attention it’s very important
yes yeah and Trust is also very
important that this this idea of I’m
gonna give you all the information that
you have at your disposal at any given
moment I’m not leaving stuff out really
I’m not necessarily always trying to
kill you so I’m going to ask you three
questions sure are you ready I’m totally
ready I have to read this once I can
never remember it okay what is your
pregame house rule look like I don’t
really have a pregame house rule list
it’s more like abandon hope all ye who
enter here
[Laughter]
okay that’s good it’s okay not to have
one absolutely because a lot of people
do yeah but um it’s I feel it’s really
good to know that not everybody does
nope second question what is your
favorite jam moment my favorite jam
moment actually happened very recently
and it was at the stream of annihilation
when we were playing and we’re playing
in the groin game and I had prepared all
of the grown characters ahead of time
and I prepared the adventure but I knew
that our I hoped I should say that it
would kind of take on a life of its own
and I handed the player characters out
to everybody ahead of time and give them
an opportunity to read them and so they
could get their own feel for what it is
that they were gonna do and it happened
it was so magical as we kind of sat
there and I think I almost did nothing
during that game except for I sit back
and watch this had come like before me
as all the growing and I party started
to interact with each other and it was
in every once in a while I would jump in
and it was kind of like being in a band
and having that ultimate jam session
yeah right as it just kind of jumped off
each other that was really fun thank you
and it’s funny because that was Rudy’s
favorite Gio moment mm-hmm last question
oh yeah quick tip for the audience
my first investing only tip to the
audience is remember if you’re a player
out there that it’s just as important
that you are focused on the fun of the
entire group as a dental master is it’s
not just about you the individual player
you want to make it fun for everybody at
the table that’s how you get invited
back my job
that’s our show for today Chris thank
you so much for coming all the way to
Burbank from Seattle just to be on our
show please tell us where we can find
you on the Internet and if there are any
fun little things that you can share
absolutely you can find me on the
internet on twitter my twitter handle is
at on attrex onn a TR YX and otherwise
you can find me if you look very closely
hunting through the jungles of cults
looking for all the undead in the tomb
of annihilation
anything new coming up maybe there’s
Zanna Thoris and Zanna thar’s has all
the character options that you’re going
to play that is awesome
yes thank you so much new builds for
everybody oh my gosh thank you for
watching as always I’m Satine Phoenix at
Satine Phoenix you can ask me gm2
questions at hashtag ask Satine and find
me every Sunday at noon on may cerk
honest or if an echo on twitch.tv slash
means Akana
and every Tuesday night dungeon
mastering on twitch.tv slash dandy thank
you for watching us here on geek &
sundry and see you next time Chris
there’s one more thing for you to do oh
yes
would you please GM us out of here
absolutely you merge from the jungle
into a vast marshland and in the marsh
you stand amidst the ruins and wreckage
of armies come pass and a mists a mist
drifts over the entire land and through
the mist you spy a vast army of undead
one so insurmountable you can’t possibly
imagine to feeding it but behind you you
hear the armor if ik squeal of a million
giant miniature space hampshire’s
as the charge of the new multi-year
assistance
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you
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where my friends and I share with you
our thoughts and suggestions on how to
gain master your role-playing game
I’m your host Satine Phoenix co-creator
of Mazur Khanna and a dungeon master on
Fury’s reach today I’d like to discuss
something I hear a lot about something
that needs addressing today’s theme is
permission
permission to be a kid permission to
roleplay
permission as a game master changed the
rules permission to reward players and
encourage them permission to throw
everything you’ve read about right out
the window to unfold your story the
heart and soul of role-playing is
imagining things with your friends there
are tons of tabletop games that you can
play that each have their own set of
mechanics take these mechanics away and
guess what you can still play in each of
these worlds take away mechanics I’m not
actually saying that I’m actually
talking about the similarities of all
these games playing Ivan Van Norman’s
game Dredd taught me a lot about what’s
actually necessary to roleplay Ivan the
game master made the decision to not
have character sheets so the story would
unfold the way he wanted it to we
discussed her character’s intentions and
backstories with Ivan before the game
started and from there he knew how to
navigate us through his world with the
simplicity of making poles whenever we
made story altering choices we were able
to honestly react to the situation at
hand
having played games with over
complicated mechanics m4e and simplified
games like Dredd it’s clear that each
tables mechanics can change the feel and
pacing of the games you have permission
dear game master to decide which of
these mechanics you want to use and
which you don’t you have the control the
rules are a guideline and before you
start trying to lynch me I got this
first hand for my friends Mike morals
and Chris Lindsay over at Dungeons and
Dragons use what makes sense to you toss
are developed rules you want as long as
you communicate these changes to your
adventures before the game and everyone
knows your rules for the table you have
permission from me from Mike and Chris
to alter as you see fit for your game
you have permission to take the campaign
books and modules and use them as
inspiration you can take the lore and
flip it on its head you can destroy
cities and enslave nations freeze oceans
it’s your story don’t like how racist a
town is you can change them you are the
storyteller and the players are there to
explore your world this might not go
over well for all your players some want
to play in the world they know and love
there are plenty of gamers who run by
the book and there are tables for them
as well
unless you’re a part of organized play
groups you have the freedom to
manipulate everything I can roll on
about this but instead let’s discuss
this with one of the original crew
members and producer for geek and
sundry’s twitch channel
Ryan green hey I’m so happy you’re here
and excited to be here we in our
pre-interview had so much to talk about
it gives pretty crazy I love the history
of you and your gaming experience yeah I
kind of rambled on for quite a bit than
that it was a consensual rambling so
it’s okay but we landed on permission
because what I didn’t realize is that in
order to create the stories and go to
the depths that we go to we need to have
permission and we don’t often give
ourselves permission well it’s
interesting because I feel that that
people feel so limited by the
information that they’re given from
books and modules and you know GM’s Gil
there’s so much stuff in content that’s
there that that people look in and say
this is how it’s done and that’s not
true
no those are guidelines those oh those
are suggestions now it’s good for
players to have players and DMS to share
a general consensus of how rules work
but in terms of what you’re allowed to
let to do both as the player and as the
DM that’s that’s a completely different
story to tell altogether yeah so for me
whenever I begin to develop an idea it
starts as just that just that idea just
that simple little molecule of something
and ice and I write a story around that
I go and I go and I go and I say well
what rules work for this and 15 is such
a friendly friendly storytelling system
because the rules are so simple but it’s
important to know all the rules and and
leave them and then manipulate them and
then manipulate them after you
understand it and we all have our
general mechanics you have you know the
d20 you have your damage you know little
little the algorithm that you have to
perform which is generally only three or
four numbers yeah that’s it and as long
as you’ll have that then you can start
playing with with the permission of what
you’re allowed to do and what you’re not
allowed to do what you allow your
players do and you don’t allow them to
do yeah and so for me one of the things
that I love that I love to do is is
allow my player
to tell me something and so I I
structure my thought process whenever
we’re going say into an encounter I
structure my thought process into three
things first is the narrative the first
priority is narrative then there is the
mechanics and then there is the
storytelling the actual narrative that I
want to have so I have a general
consensus as to what it is that I’m
trying to achieve with my story but if
the role player if the player actually
tells me something that oh they want to
run up and they want you to attack a
bandit and they’re approaching they
start describing the wind on their face
and then that you know going through the
leaves and subject and then sneaking up
behind them and just to soft breath
against the back of their neck to make
their hairs rise and then slit their
throat like yes let’s do this let’s
do it so I’ll have them roll and if it’s
high enough they just get a kill it
HP doesn’t matter AC doesn’t matter I’m
like you you I want you to the only AC
that’s there is how much you gave me is
how much the difficulty is is just it
gets lowered with the more role-playing
the more narrative you give me yeah
because at this point I’m just the
narrator for your story you as the
player I’m just I’m just here to tell it
but if you start writing your own fluid
dimensions to it I’m all about it well
what do you what happens when you have
another player who sees that and it’s
like that’s not fair they have X amount
of hit points and in all this what are
they what happens when they start I said
well yeah if they just slit the pandas
throat and you don’t like it that
happened in two seconds what do you want
to do you tell me how you stop that from
happening tell me what the problem is
that your character sees that because
that you’re getting out of character
emotions and you’re getting in character
emotions you just told me you’re out of
character what’s your in character and
and then I want them to start engaging
and start giving me that role plan that
narrative because it’s not about it’s
not always about min maxing it’s not
always about the strict and stern
mechanics of something DMS rewrite stuff
all the time it might just be a simple
spell or you know a little thing here
and there but to completely forego
combat mechanics in favor of
storytelling
that’s what D&D is about it’s about
storytelling not about number crunching
at least not
so if you have a lot of players who are
doing this super heavy descriptive
role-playing do you manipulate the
mechanics to the point where they all
just kind of succeed because of the
heavy role play well that’s where the
next step comes in which is the
mechanics and the storytelling itself
because I might intend for a villain to
escape now if they do things really well
may start rolling those NAT twenties and
they start getting there then I might
have to change my story quite a bit but
mechanics do have to limit what the
players do just a little bit because
otherwise if I if I let them do
everything that they wanted at all times
it gets out of control so that’s where
the mechanics do come in and I have to
say well you do have to see you know if
you get hit you still have to perform a
concentration check yeah because I like
that and that does make sense you can’t
you can’t stay focus on something after
getting bludgeoned in the side of the
head yes exactly and so that’s why that
rule does exist but you know again if a
rogue is going up and slitting a throne
I’m like that’s something that you do as
a rogue like that’s that’s a function
that you have if a wizard did that
different story Oh interesting
so unless unless the character is
dynamic in their backstory in their
history says that they have this
criminal origin that they you know the
skull drudgery that they try and perform
and that’s a little bit different but
that’s because you’ve written me a
narrative you’ve given me a reason why
your character acts the way and performs
that way as a wizard which is it seems
out of character for the wizard class
but in character for you so it’s like
honest role playing will encourage you
to reward the players absolutely
constantly and and I feel that that’s
the greatest thing that you can do for
the players is reward them for
role-playing and reward them for telling
their story again I’m just narrating at
this point yeah cuz I want them to come
up with their dialogue I want them to
come up with their monologue and
furthermore whenever you’re you’re
looking or you’re you’re listening to
the story I want everyone at the table
to stop and just listen and just think
for a moment and not try and just go
over to the ladder
I don’t know this anime the Doritos and
you know just going and I just want them
to to be able to listen to what they’re
saying is you’re gonna get so much more
out of that because it’s about reacting
that’s the that’s the honest role
playing is reacting to the other person
and there’s so many people at the table
say there’s four players and a game
master everybody’s reacting to one
another so listen to what the other
players are doing is what you’re saying
listen to the game master and then kind
of feed off of that yeah and then it
because that’s gonna establish the type
of things that you might that might
influence your character and the player
again that the in character in the out
of character at dynamic which are two
very different things and that that’s
something that I feels really important
for the roleplay itself is understanding
those two elements because I might be
angry that so-and-so just kind of bent
the rules in the favour and the DM
allowed it but then a and I had to say
well what would my character do what
would my character do in this moment if
they can bend the rules I bet I can’t –
but how far can I go to the limitations
of my character so I think that a lot of
people are afraid of letting go of the
numbers I I agree I agree so how do you
that so you gave one example on how to
overcome that or do you have any other
examples III try and tell everyone
yes and no matter what yes and if if you
know we’re having conversation of forest
and one of the character says that
Beehive is nearby suddenly a beehive is
nearby and I’m like sure why not it
really has no influence over the story
yet
but it’s there but and at the same time
if like we were talking about the the
Bandit going up or the Bandit standing
there and someone slitting the throat
now a dagger has a certain number that’s
associated with it but at that point
a dagger still deals a lot of damage to
a jugular yeah I don’t care what a
number says at that point if you’re if
you’re telling me specifically what
you’re doing then then that allows the
numbers to just not exist but if you say
I’m gonna go up and attack the Bandit
then the numbers will exist okay so if
you have like you have you have your
dagger at the jugular and you’re like
this is what I want to do heavy heavy
role play I roll a one you still get to
more or less do what you are doing but
as you were approaching you misstep and
you stepped on that twig getting the
attention of the other ones you end up
getting the dagger into the side to the
side
there because of the sudden attention
that was drawn to you you still hit the
guy and you still you know scratch the
throat yeah but you don’t necessarily
deal all the damage that you were
intending and now as a rogue that was
standing there all the attention on you
is exactly what you don’t want to have
happen yeah so I don’t want to take away
from what you did from the intent of
your action in the intent of your
roleplay I don’t want to take that away
but I am going to punish you because the
mechanics told me to interesting so as a
game master you are the one who can
guide how far the role-playing can go
I’ve seen some the mechanics a base on
the mechanics but I always respect the
role play first and then if the
mechanics say that I can’t respect the
role play do you know a die roll says I
can’t respect I’m like well we’ll see
I’m fudging it here and there budging I
hear things
you’re the game master you want to give
the players a certain amount of openness
but just here and there and then
resurrection is actually another great
example a character dies and it’s like
well I’m a cleric I’m I guess but are
you trained enough are you powerful
enough can you actually do it do you
have access to that spell do you still
have the spell slot available or did you
drain all of that ratings within you one
day you know for that day and you know
so the role play might be really rich
but I’m like you know what’s better the
fact that you can’t do something yes
role play that you can’t do it you place
your hands on their chest you feel the
magic begin to surge through that
radiant energy begin a search through
you and in slowly pit her out you feel
exhausted and you begin to collapse
sucks because because that spell slots
not there but I’m like I’m now going to
let you know that you are fatigued from
this and you are actually suffering
exhaustion because you are over
stressing your body yeah do it
and then the players need to know that
it’s okay yeah it’s okay to fail and
it’s okay to have flaws and to be below
a certain amount of hit points and all
that I mean that’s that’s how life goes
right and I want I want to as bring as
many real-life rules that we have in
restrictions that we have in our reality
to the game without making it feel like
real life and still feel like a game
yeah are you ready for the last three
questions I hope so
what is your pregame house
rule mmm definitely yes aunt mm-hmm
definitely yes aunt I want people to
feel comfortable and I want them and
then I want and that they are able to
make the story such as the beehive or
the Bandit and I want them to know that
it’s okay to not know everything as long
as you’re trying yes as long you know
you don’t need to know all the rules you
need to know more crunch you don’t need
to know exactly the the right path to
take to level up in the most efficient
way do what matters to you
I this is your story this is your
character just go do with it and
everyone else is going to accept that
around you because they don’t know
better either what is your favorite GM
moment I’m so lucky because it is a
thing that I get to experience again and
again with every campaign and it’s
character creation oh and it’s because I
can sit here and create characters all
day you know that’s that’s what a DM
does they create hundreds and hundreds
of characters but especially with new
players if I say we’re gonna create a
character in a fantasy environment right
now you already thought of something I
don’t know what that is and it’s the
first time that I get to interact with
my player where I get we get to share
our imagination and it comes together
and we think of the exact same thing
eventually we get to it but we get the
exact same thing yeah and if I say it
that you say Bart I’m like great you
already know who your mother and father
are you already know if they’re dead or
alive you know if you were raised by
wolves or bears you know all this I
don’t tell me so I just it’s a
questionnaire and an inquiry
why I just start going in and you were
writing a story together in that moment
but it’s our story no one else in the
room knows it and so to see a story
written in seconds in moments that’s my
favorite DM experience because then I
look at everything that you created in
that very moment I say well now how am I
going to fit this in and how am I going
to make sure to best represent your
story in this game because it’s about
you not me beautiful no GM tip for the
audience okay so I kinda meant a little
bit before but it’s listening stopping
and listening
whenever the dam is speaking you are
listening whenever a player is speaking
you are listening
because there is so much to get out of
those small moments the little nuances
and it’s not just listening it’s
watching because if I say sure we can go
there that’s one thing but sure we can
go there
the influx in my voice yeah the
expression on my face the the little
bits of acting that you get from that
can have an entirely different meaning
exactly just because you weren’t talking
to your friend because it wasn’t your
turn
yes and and if it’s stopping listening
and paying attention like those are so
important to be able to do absolutely
thanks for watching GM tips here on geek
& sundry a big thank you to Ryan for
hanging out with us a pleasure where can
we find you on the Internet so off for
Twitter you can find me at hydro snail
and my twitch is twitch TV slash hydro
snail underscore Ryan green very long
very nice
I’m sateen Phoenix as always at sateen
Phoenix and you can ask me questions to
explore on this show at hashtag ask
sateen you can find me Sundays at noon
on orphan echo on twitch.tv slash major
arcana and tuesday evenings dungeon
mastering on twitch TV slash D&D and if
you haven’t seen sagas of sundry dreads
check it out on project alpha comm Ryan
will you GMs out of here
I’d love to so you find yourself on your
knees hands bound behind your back
you’re in some form of stone room
possibly a cathedral moonlight shining
through the stained glass looking to
your left you see that stained glass the
moonlight shimmering in the dust on it
you see a falling star no an angel some
sort
crashing before you a man steps out of
the shadows his face obscured with
darkness he spreads his long black wings
they’re broken and battered from combat
feathers begin to fall from them and
from the tips you can see that they are
they have been burned and charred with
battle but they are stained with blood
looking at you hello bishop you look at
me with such reprise you’ve seen me
before yes
you see his focus still the glance up
back up to that stained glass window and
back at you you can’t hear you you know
hell hell is not a place of fire and
brimstone you feel your body begin to
heat and swell no he’ll there’s not a
place of pain as you get an image of
hooks flying towards you or agony you
feel the hooks descend into your flesh
no hell is a place where God doesn’t
listen placing his hand upon your head
your head you disintegrate into ash
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you
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where my friends and I share with you
our thoughts and suggestions on how to
gain master your role-playing game
I’m your host Satine Phoenix co-creator
of Mazur Khanna and a guild addict for
D&D from breaking roles as a GM to
manipulating expectations
today’s theme is playing dirty the game
master is a mysterious storyteller who
weaves tales for players to find their
way through the mind magician who wields
possibilities she’s the one who dictates
how the rules are used he’s the one that
sets the pace and mood they’re the one
that bends reality to help or hinder the
group it’s easy to follow rules from a
book but rules are merely guides to the
game you have to respect game mechanics
but once understood you can bend them to
your will let’s list some ways you can
twist your game for a more personalized
experience tip number one environment
manipulation sound silence mood music
sound effects ambiance soundtracks
lighting dim or bright changing as the
adventure changes smell incense candles
or foodstuffs whether a breeze from a
fan heat or chill in the air all of
these can be manipulated during the game
try setting up the area before your
players arrive for a more immersive
experience establishing the mood before
they even start playing tip number two
adding mechanics from other systems the
fun thing about homebrews is that you
can not only take away rules but you can
add in rules from other games what I
really like is from 10 candles allowing
the players to help develop the world
around them creating facts within the
scene that could possibly aid them or
the NPC’s this I do selectively in a
specific moment rather than all of the
time tip number 3 allowing some
rule-breaking based on excellent
roleplay I get super excited when a
player can roleplay the dice away when
players have great ideas at normal rules
contradict I’ll sometimes allow it
because it encourages a group to be more
creative and even work together tip
number 4 sensory emotions
evoke certain emotions not by telling
your players what they feel but by
placing things in the environment
trigger words like birthday cake to
evoke childhood memories mothballs or
doilies might trigger the memory of
one’s grandparents which might lead to a
certain odor memory or sound you can
draw out the feelings or move the
players quickly choose specific words or
textures to guide your players in and
out of their own memories while
traveling through your story you can
describe these in-game or purposefully
place items around the gaming room to
subliminally evoke certain emotions both
the real world and mine world are
available to play with tip number 5 and
PC is bending the world allow the
players to affect the NPCs negotiate
change their minds and reasons for
things allow the players to affect the
lives of the NPC is the way a
conversation might change how a player
sees the world and in the same vein
trust that your players can handle being
backstabbed by an NPC they trust I could
roll on but instead let’s discuss this
with any Award winner the author of play
dirty and the creator of 7c John wick
thank you so much for being here
it’s very welcome thank you for inviting
me and congratulations on all of your
any’s this year that’s pretty
mind-blowing it was really weird I I did
not expect us to win anything and then
boom boom boom boom boom and it was only
our after the awards ceremony I was like
did we win
so let’s talk about played dirty what’s
the philosophy behind play dirty the
philosophy behind play dirty is that
well I did two books of G M advice and
the philosophy is that if role-playing
games are the only literary medium where
the author and the audience are the same
person right I will do anything in my
power to make that to make that happen
you can watch a movie and you’re
watching Tony Stark on the screen you’re
not Tony Stark you can read a book and
you’re not Jon Snow right but in
role-playing game there’s a moment where
your characters in trouble and you think
I’m in trouble right and that’s the it’s
the only literary medium that does that
so if if every if if a game if there is
a GM if I don’t try to just
exploit that I’m feeling yeah otherwise
you’re just playing a board game we may
as well be playing dissent or talisman
or anything else so I want you to not
think my characters in trouble I want
you to think I’m in trouble and it’s and
and I will do anything in my power to
make that happen
anything you say anything well I’ve done
there’s a lot of examples in the book
and and a lot of it has to do with
exploiting the environment using music
using dropping the temperature in the
room when I run horror games I call it
Cthulhu and but for example I did a game
called 30 which is where you play the
last 30 Knights Templar and you go on
this big magic journey right and at one
point you’re the Knights Templar and
you’re in the modern day you’re not
exactly sure where you are and I’m
explaining to you that you walk up to a
door and the door looks and as I
explained it looks a lot like your door
to your house or your apartment or
whatever and you knock on the door and
as soon as I say that we’re sitting at
the table there’s a knock at the door
and the players all look up and I like
what’s going on and they and one of the
players goes to the front door and they
open it and there’s a knight Templar at
the door planning yes I had my cell
phone on and my friend had his cell
phone on and he does historical
recreation so he put together his knight
Templar outfit and as soon as the
players in the game their characters the
Knights Templar are walking up to the
store that looks like their door and
then there’s a knock and then they open
the door and there’s a Templar at the
door and that’s the moment where they go
what is going on what what’s happening
in the game is happening here and that’s
an example of one of the things that
I’ve done to make the players have that
really brief moment where the line
between who they are and who the
character is is just gone so that’s a
bit of planning and it’s kind of like a
more severe how far do you go well it
has a lot to do with consent right I
have at my table I have a source
contract which is that if if you’re
gonna sit at my table and I’m gonna want
to want more on my play dirty games you
have to be prepared for anything to
happen you have to be prepared to lose
control your character you have to be
prepared that maybe we’re gonna get up
and move you have to be prepared for
maybe I have planted things in the house
or the apartment or people all of those
things so it’s you have to be prepared
for anything to happen your character
and you have to be ok with it but then
of course there’s always the time or
somebody goes okay time out right and
that’s the that’s my little symbol of
okay time out I need to stop right
because that that moment of breaking
that wall can be really extreme can be
emotionally extreme and so whenever
anybody says timeout right that’s it
everything stops the lights come up you
know and and we all talk and we all calm
down everything like that but that’s the
kind of gaming that I’m interested in
I’m not interested in playing a board
game with role-playing you know I can
roleplay as my character I can play
world Warcraft and roleplay but that’s
not a role-playing game a role-playing
game is specifically designed for you to
tell a cooperative story with your
friends where you are the hero and you
are crossing over into that hero realm
like Greg Sanford says and having the
adventure you and you come back
transformed from the adventure right the
whole hero journey thing and that’s what
I’m interested in role-playing games so
let’s talk a little bit about sensory
emotions yeah
and how you design your game with these
people knocking at the door or changing
the environment a little bit how did you
how did you realize that that was a very
valuable asset to have at the table it
came a lot from theater right when I was
younger I took which I think every GM
should do should go to Community College
drop the money and take an improv class
right every every GM should do that it
teaches you how to how to react instead
of act it teaches you how to how to
engage people and all that kind of stuff
and that’s part of it right for me being
a GM is far less about I’m going to tell
you my story and much more about I’m
going to help you tell your story so
environment wise I think about
where are they I know that like when I
run a Call of Cthulhu game every
Halloween it’s the first role-playing
game I ever got was called a Cthulhu so
when I run Call of Cthulhu I turn off
every light in the house I unplug all
the power for everything there is no
oven light there is no clock light
there’s nothing there’s no light and and
then I drop the temperature in the house
I turn the air-conditioning way up I
start playing
Polish horror music right in the rooms I
will go and get friends of mine because
I’m like I only have five people in my
Cthulhu game and that’s it right and you
know them that’s I know that yeah and
that’s you know how how each of them
responds so you’re really navigating all
of them very specifically right and they
have limits right like a friend of mine
has a certain phobia that I will not
cross right that’s that’s a no cross
right but everything else he’s like
everything else is fair game
you can do whatever you want to me but
this thing please do not do this thing
so I respect that right and then and so
I know what they’re all about so I
design a story that is really tailored
to them what they want out of the game I
pay attention to character sheets and
then I don’t have plans I have
contingencies I set up I don’t really
have long-term goals
because no plan no GM plan survives
first contact with the players so why
make a plan right instead you go okay
I’m gonna throw this at them and this at
them and this at them and this at them
they pick this up okay let’s go here
right but otherwise the the other things
that I do is I use vocal imitation I use
I use vocal changes for different
characters different NPC’s all wear
different hats for NPCs I collect hats
so I have different hats for all the
NPC’s I will this is what I usually wear
as a GM well wear a suit a black suit
because it’s old called a Cthulhu
gimmick the man in black and but I will
change out into a different jacket or
I’ll do the things so the players really
feel like they’re talking to that
character I will adopt physical
mannerisms for that NPC and because of
that the player
start doing the same thing right they
start going oh my character should speak
with a lisp or I should speak I should
speak with it right
or and they start looking for things to
to give their characters affectations to
make the whole thing more some I want to
say subversive which is what it is
you’re actually subverting their
expectations and subverting their their
their preconceptions so that you can hit
them in ways that that you know like I
say and playing dirty that their
character she cannot protect them well
by watching other people get involved in
that manner they they get permission to
do that yeah and then they get
permission to allow you to pull them
deeper yes so it’s just kind of like the
stages of interest the stages of
involvement for them because everybody I
feel sits at this certain level around
the table like we’re gonna have fun
we’re doing this thing but I know you
and you’ll take me a little bit deeper
and I trust all of these people and
we’ll go a little bit deeper and deeper
like we did with dread which was insane
we just we all got so deep that you
weren’t us anymore we were only the
characters and we responded honestly
that way so that’s what it sounds like
from what you’re saying is by adding all
these elements in you guys all had that
contract where we’re going yeah I’m
gonna go really deep yeah we’re gonna
and and it’s gonna be fun and and and it
has all of the rules of of you know of
consensual play it’s like okay stop
I need to stop right now and everybody’s
like yes with respect to stop right or
somebody like in r7c LARP one of the
things we do is we have the thumbs up
and the thumbs in the middle of the
thumbs down so I was playing a villain
in the in the 7c LARP just at Gen Con
and I was really evil I was really
really evil and one of the things we
have is like when I engaged with with a
with a woman in the in the game I was
very evil I was very upfront I was very
in her face and I was very physically
touch her because that’s LARP right but
I was very intimidating and I would get
up into her face and then I would do
this I just do a little the check-in
yeah the chicken are you okay should I
tone it down
should I stop oh that’s beautiful right
and that really comes from Danielle who
do it and like it’s it’s something that
we kind I kind of do an alarm anyway in
a verbal way I’m like are you okay are
you okay but in this way if I do this I
don’t have to stop being my character
I’m going to ask you three questions
okay what is your pregame house rule
look like we will talked about a little
bit I have a when I run a play dirty
game because I’ll run a regular games
but when I put in a play dirty game
there is a consent moment right and the
understanding is is that I will do
anything in this game I will break rules
I will
because rules are really about your
character sheet is something that you’re
using to communicate to me what you want
right so I will read character sheets
and will go through and also I will ask
the players telling me three things
about your character that aren’t on your
character sheet what do you care about
what would you die for what would you
not die for what would you kill for
those kinds of questions what is the
most important thing to your character
that’s not on your character sheet and
once I have those as a GM I’ve got you
what is your favorite GM moment that the
Templar moment was one of them but I
recently ran I was I was the villain in
the LARP and and I I was playing a
villain and I was with a player and I
did the I said can I he was playing a
priest I’ve had a scene priest from 7c
and I said can you guy grab you by the
collar and he said yes so I grabbed him
by the collar and I said grab hold of my
wrist so that you can you know and I
dragged him across the room and I gave
him a choice and I said you can either
kill I’m going to kill someone in this
room and because you lied to me I’m
neither gonna kill this man I’m gonna
kill that woman
which one is it oh right and things
happened and it’s a long story but at
the end of the game he told me he said
I’ve been a fan of yours you know for a
long time I’ve read the play dirty books
and I’m always looking for that moment
that John wick a moment where for my
players and he’s like and when you grab
me by the collar and started dragging me
I had two thoughts and the first one is
my character is going to die
and the second thought was oh my god I’m
having my chammak woman and John wick is
doing it to me and that was that was a
really great he later he’s like you made
my GenCon thank you and I was like yay
because that’s my job my job as a GM is
so that you have that moment and that’s
my satisfaction mm-hmm third question is
a quick tip to the audience that can be
anything do not so there’s the mr.
Miyagi rule mr. Miyagi rule is teachers
say student student do and I apply that
to games games say player do right so
games tell you not just what the rules
are about how to play them right don’t
look at the rules so much look at what
the game is telling you how you should
play all right because people play call
of cthulhu differently than they play
D&D they play legend of five rings or
seven see differently than they play
apocalypse world or anything like that
look at how the game is telling you how
you should play is that really what you
want to do right is that what you want
to do is this again because that’s
what’s going to happen the players are
gonna read the rules okay rules whatever
but they’re gonna read the parts that
that are between the lines that say this
is how you play the game is that the
kind of game you want to play and if
it’s not you should find a different
kind of game that’s our show for today
thank you so much for joining us here oh
where can we find you on the Internet
I met John Luke presents calm there’s
also a John wick presents Twitter and
John wick presents Facebook and it’s
it’s real easy it’s just John wick
presents and congratulations on all your
successes thank you as always I’m Satine
Phoenix at setting Phoenix you can ask
me gm2 questions at hashtag ask Satine
and find me every Sunday at noon on
maser connoisseur if an echo on
twitch.tv slash maser Khanna and every
Tuesday night dungeon mastering on
twitch TV slash dandy thank you so much
for watching us here on geek & sundry
see you next time wait can you do one
thing for me anything for you
would you please yeah miss out of here
yes I understand you have your favorite
character with you I do well this is
your favorite character this is mirror
that you made with Zach right so when
you were very when you were younger
you had a rivalry with an evil sorceress
and and this rivalry went back and forth
back and forth and you lost track of
each other but you’ve recently
discovered that she’s trying to become a
lich so yeah so you and your friends you
and your fellow adventurers are gonna go
to her lair and stop her from becoming a
witch I’ll it I’m sorry
however as soon as you take a step into
the dungeon something happens you feel
odd your fingers go numb and and your
tongue does it feels thick and and
suddenly you’re a voice in your head and
and your limbs freeze and tighten and
you realize that you’re no longer in
your body and you hear the voice of your
old rival and she says I was mummified
but now you are and I am in your body
your friends don’t know this yet as a
matter of fact I’m going to tell you
this before the game starts so the other
players don’t know and I have two goals
mirror the first goal is to escape this
place as you and the second goal is to
hurt your friends as much as I
now here’s how this works you Satine are
going to be playing the evil sorceress
and you are going to do your best to
make sure that you hurt your friends and
escape at the dungeon and every time
that you roll a die any die I’m gonna
give you a chance to escape to break
this spell you’re gonna make a roll
you’re gonna make a you’re gonna make a
will save or a charisma save you know
whichever version you’re playing and you
have to roll higher than her and you
have to make the save and if you do you
will break one part of the spell you
need to break three in order to get
completely free now every time she rolls
a die I’m going to give you an
opportunity to roll you don’t have to
roll but I’m gonna give you a deep bonus
d for every time that you roll a die
alright so you can save those d fours as
you go so when you make your will save
you can roll all those d floors with it
or you can try to make the roll okay but
every time you do and you fail part of
you is going to die
you get three chances so shall we begin
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
I’m your host sateen Phoenix co-creator
of Mazur Khanna and a dungeon master on
Fury’s reach today’s theme is new
players
[Music]
but the different games available
nowadays the different styles and rules
and character sheets playing any RPG can
seem daunting it’s our duty dear game
masters to provide a safe environment
for these new players some will have
been video gamers than idea of RPGs and
some might have no experience at all
that shouldn’t stop any of them from
learning my friend Christine woo asked
me about Tandy and I ran her through a
quick game with no character sheets or
planning and only one died role I could
have scheduled a game with her and
walked her through the players handbook
but that’s not the essence of RPGs in my
opinion she had so much fun in that
moment as she ended up getting the books
and reading up on the game on her own
because she connected with the heart of
the game you know it isn’t easy for a
lot of people to come out of their shell
and perform in front of others but there
seems to be a resurgence of people
playing now I’ve seen a lot of new
players stop playing after only 1 or 2
sessions because of how overwhelming it
can get or how they feel they’re too far
behind to catch up that’s absolutely not
the case let’s take a look at different
ways to ease new players into our
favorite hobby before the game talk to
them and find out what kind of character
they are interested in playing do
explain to them the benefits of this
kind of race class combination don’t
overwhelm them by suggesting all the
things you think are badass they’re
there to play the characters from their
fantasies once they get the hang of it
introduce them to other combinations
give them the basic information and
abilities
once they seem to understand the order
of actions and get the hang of the way
you and your friends roleplay then give
them more abilities before the next
session don’t overwhelm them by asking
them to calculate tons of numbers help
them by pre calculating and modifiers so
they can experience the play and
roleplay rather than spending gobs of
time with their heads in the character
sheet hand them the exact dice will need
for rolling attack dice damaged eyes etc
so they don’t get confused trying to
find the right die
I say this over and over and I’m gonna
keep saying it until it seeps in
tell the players your house rules so
they know how to play with you let them
know to trust you with environment and
PCs and situations in the end all they
really need to do is tell you what they
want to do the game master guides them
to what they should roll to make the
intention happen during the game you and
the other players are their guide the
new player will learn from watching what
other players do show them the
possibilities by role-playing with the
other characters and allowing them to
see the players play then give them
specific moments to try their hand at
role-playing decide how much influence
you want the other players to have in
teaching the new player during the game
this is considered medic gaming draw a
lines that the players don’t take
advantage of being able to met a game
outside of this specific case in your
game it can quickly get out of hand I’ve
seen it on this note be careful how you
reprimand other players rules are set
for ease of play but aggressive
reprimanding can also deter a new player
from the game role-playing games are fun
don’t lose track of that there are a lot
of rules and boundaries that navigate
and with lots of practice you’ll get
better at it rules how much is too much
rules heavier rules light they still
need to be communicated I find that
giving them a basic rule rundown of
things they can do before the game
starts and then gradually teaching them
as they go is optimal
a lot of people learn by being put in
situations rather than having to
memorize so be patient with them
I could roll on but instead let’s
discuss this with writer master of the
gauntlet a musical improviser with robot
teammate Chris Bramante hello thank you
for coming for having me sateen you’re a
fantastic game master
thank you I saw it with my own eyes oh
you were a fantastic player you are the
man in charge of the gauntlet yes yes I
was very impressed it’s very fun and
lively and easy to play well I’m glad
that it was yeah gauntlet is designed in
order to let new players come in that
day you can create your character but
you don’t create a character sheet we
have a character sheet already built for
you and you just use your weapons and
your you know your will and your
fortitude but beyond that stats aren’t
that important to the show it was really
cool because you asked me what do you
want to play what kind of character do
you want to play and it was that was as
simple as your character sheet seemed to
be like oh I want to play a wizard or oh
I want to play a paladin of some sort
and you’re like okay well that idea fits
into this character sheet and you had us
make backstories and stuff but it was
actually very simple so how did you come
up with that easy character sheet so you
have all the different classes each of
them have kind of the best weapon that
matches that class best is obviously
subjective but what we did was we took
three different kinds of weapons each
person gets just to come in fill out
your name as long as you know who you
are
everything’s there for you and just it’s
a hack and slash I think is the term
just a dungeon crawl you’re going from
room to room you’re escaping you’re
killing these creatures you’re
collecting skulls which is why I’m the
skull giver I montiek the skull giver
and so I didn’t even do that because I’m
pretty new to GME myself the first time
I ever GM was live on Twitch that’s cool
it was pretty nerve-wracking until it
started happening until I sort of just
sort of rolled back into my head
you know eyes disappeared came back as a
Monty ah command I thought
but before that it all seemed kind of
overwhelming but then it just gets
natural as it goes on just like I
suppose life is and so I want people who
have never played to be able to just
come and have fun and fantasize and
improvise and do their thing and one of
the ways you do that seems to be with
having a light-hearted game yeah so you
mentioned something before about you
your view on comedy and your view on
being playful with players can you talk
about that
one thing that I always think about
comedy but also taking something
seriously is I don’t want too much like
meta fourth-wall breaking because I am a
lord of the Rings fantasy head I love
that stuff but I also don’t want things
to be the same so what I try to bring to
the gauntlet is this ridiculous almost
Mel Brooks ian silliness exactly that’s
exactly it was writer on Mel Brooks yeah
thank you
like I’ve be missed the no clops is one
of the characters I like to play he was
a cyclops and then he was blinded by
neuron Dean the night boy so now he’s
the no klopse
just like dumb stuff that makes me laugh
but I try to treat it as if it’s super
serious and some of the times where I
struggle in the show is if a performer
doesn’t act like their life is in danger
mm-hmm because I what I always feel
about if you’re going to make believe
you must believe and one of the most
freeing concepts for me as an improviser
was when a teacher told me don’t try to
be funny don’t think that you’re funny
don’t be thinking in that way choose a
character be that character and then
just believe that you are and then see
what happens so for me that’s how I want
to perform in a show so when we’re doing
a live twitch stream it’s different
because it’s a show it’s not
just it’s not a long-form campaign you
don’t have the time to really think it
through in the way that you would when
you’re getting together with a group
without people expecting you to keep
their attention so what I want to do is
create a situation in which you can just
tap in believe who you are know what
your weapons are and how to use them and
then just keep moving and keep going so
the rules for the game Pathfinder
Dungeons & Dragons or whatever they’re
pretty intense
yes how did you simplify it to
communicate to the new players that come
in on your come in to your game so that
they would understand it easier what I
do is if someone’s never played at all
the way I describe it to them is think
of this as verbal storytelling in which
the dice is a conduit to chance
that’s what that’s all it is we’re going
to talk about what’s happening I believe
it’s second is a GM you’re speaking in
second person which is you this you that
and usually once they understand that
and then the basic concept of can I hit
and what does it do mm-hmm and then
describe what you’re doing walk us
through it
once they get that and we do a couple
practice rolls like I have it in columns
it’s like you’re always going to strike
then you roll the die explain to them
all they’re dice and at first you can
kind of see like this like math and like
the way that you’ve simplified it not
just for the players but for you so that
you get the players through the dungeon
because one of the things I noticed that
when we were playing your game is I
didn’t even think about the rules the
way you showed it to us it was what are
you doing and we were just kind of
moving and it it was second nature but
that’s playing and that’s what
role-playing games are is I’m doing this
what are you doing this is what the
other guy is doing and it’s just the
that really fluid movement through the
adventure yeah and your group is so
fluid because you have a relationship
together all right
you came in there and it was I could
even sense it was such a pared down
version for you like Cayenne Midian and
& my linh
magic ARRA what a character it was just
instantly you guys were just flowing
through it and I try to bring in groups
that at least have one person that they
know because an established rapport
takes it to the next level the times are
I’ve brought in individuals that don’t
know each other it’s definitely a roll
of the dice in terms of will they
connect or will they freeze up will they
not engage and then even though they
write out these bios of character
explorations based off of questions I’ve
asked them they don’t necessarily use
the information because sometimes it
feels like it’s probably just the brain
as processing like am I doing this right
yeah do you have anything else you want
to say about this um
yeah people I always want to make sure
that that just the realm is kept within
like if you want to do meta
earth jokes you can do them but do them
in this world like we had someone who
initially wrote a sheet and they wanted
to be a surfer in Santa Monica and the
way I phrased it to them is even though
Amontillado is over a thousand years old
has died many times and has gone to all
different sorts of dimension
he knows what Santa Monica is but you
guys don’t so he did a quick edit of it
and then it was he was a turtle rider
from Montes Anika oh gosh and so he can
still do his comedic performance in that
way but with making it true to this
world which is a realm I called eros
although now we’re in the alternate
dimension of hey hey rose and then some
people get sucked into the all horse
version of that dimension which is hey
rose fun funfun it all kind of just
comes up as it’s happening
yeah that’s gaming and that’s improv so
I’m gonna ask you three questions three
quests just same questions I ask every
guest questions three answer you these
questions three yeah let’s see if I can
do it
what is your pregame house rule the
pregame house rule is to like each other
to the players like each other you are
all together you’re on the same team
you’re not attacking each other you will
never any point in the rules of this
game draw a sword against another player
so why have a sword of words these are
your friends we try to do a few improv
warm-ups beforehand make eye contact and
then of course like I was saying believe
believe that you are who you are the
stakes are high you are not in Earth
right now you are in darros that’s the
rule let’s play awesome what is your
favorite GM moment my favorite GM moment
was when the chat created an emote of my
head and I what that did to me was
sometimes I feel like things make sense
when you see that it makes sense to
someone else so I grew up as a punk rock
kid I used to sing in a punk band called
the mashed potatoes I was never quite a
metal or goth person but I always hung
in those realms but big fan of the
misfits growing up and so when I play in
fantasy realms even though I am a
pacifist in a very peaceful person who
doesn’t even I don’t play violent video
games the only time that any sort of
violent urge just kind of naturally
pours out is in fantasy roleplay games
where it’s like oh I just described a
gross flaying of an orc
I guess that’s in there somewhere but
when they created the emote as I am a
montiek the Skull giver someone I was
looking at the chat I always begin it
with my little intro scream that you’ve
entered the gauntlet and I looked at
chat and all of a sudden there is me
with the robe and my hair sticking out
and then a skull for my face and I was
like okay they understand what I’m
trying to do and now I understand what I
was even doing
so it was a conversation and that the
chat kind of helped me become what I
wanted to become in there creating of
that emote that’s awesome no a quick tip
to the audience doesn’t have to have
anything to do with what we talked about
today oh great do I look to you or do I
look to them you can look to whoever you
want okay
hi so look to you a quick tip would be
something that robot teammates improv
coach taught to us which is to dig your
heels sometimes when we’re creating an
improvised story live in front of a
crowd things go off the rails the story
we were the story we were intending to
tell is not being told
sometimes the instinct is discomfort and
nervousness and looking to each other
and you can sense this kind of like oh I
wish I wasn’t here why are we doing this
people are looking at us expecting to be
entertained to be satisfied so what our
coach taught us was especially when that
happens double down even further even if
it has gone fully crazy and angels are
coming out of your ears and babies are
singing and lasses dig your heels into
the dirt as if it was exactly your plan
and so that is something that I try to
do in life and definitely do in GME
that’s an excellent GM tip thank you
thank you that is the end of our show
for today
thank you for watching GM tips on geek &
sundry and thank you Chris for being
here oh thank you for having me
where can we find you on the Internet oh
you know places I’m Chris Tremonti you
can find me as a montiek on Twitter
Instagram and YouTube as well as every
Thursday on the gauntlet on twitch.tv
slash hyper RPG you can find me on
Fridays at 9:30 on geek & sundry twitch
where we do gather your party with
robots you mate and those are the places
to find me it’s true I’ve seen them on
those places as always I’m Satine
Phoenix you can find me at Satine
Phoenix and you can catch me every
Sunday on twitch.tv slash maser kana and
orphan echo and Tuesday is dungeon
string Furies reach on twitch TV / D&D
and on SOG is a sundry dread on project
alpha comm Chris mmm
are you ready to GMs out of here oh I
hope so
to all you creatures seeking quest your
whims and wits now face a test the story
needs you take the helm guide us through
your mythic realm trust your dice expect
surprise conceive believe and improvise
construct a world consumed in conflict a
Forgotten forest danken haunted
imagination use it wanted confront the
fire face the gauntlet find the
adventure hiding within the time is now
so just
you
[Music]
Satine Phoenix co-creator of major
arcana and a dungeon master on theories
reach today’s theme is a life
[Music]
I remember back when I first started
playing D&D life was more simple then
rules were more simple my character was
simple and all I had to do was tell my
GM what I wanted to do and roll the dice
and a modifier would inform me on the
outcome of the intention one thing
that’s been a consistent part of the
role-playing discussion through the last
40 years is alignment good and evil and
those shades in between back then you’d
pick one of nine alignments to play and
that would navigate how you would
interact with the world lawful good
lawful neutral lawful evil neutral good
true neutral neutral evil chaotic good
chaotic neutral chaotic evil what these
really do is frame out the crossroads
between law and chaos and good and evil
a lawful person is someone who respects
follows and encourages the law and rules
of society a chaotic person is someone
who follows personal freedom
adaptability and flexibility above the
law of the land good is someone who has
compassion and respect for living things
usually someone who believes in helping
others evil is someone who acts without
consideration or care of the well-being
of others even in spite of harming
others without effect on one’s conscious
even a hurting and killing out of
pleasure
then there’s true neutral neutral
respects a range of law and chaos and
good and evil but isn’t beholden to one
over the other the other shades of
neutral Express sway in that direction
outside of their natural neutral state
the reality is that no one’s always one
or the other playing a character
strictly in this way can also be pretty
frustrating as a player making choices
because it’s what your character
alignment chooses rather than what makes
the most sense for the character in that
situation outright killing something in
the name of chaotic evil without
consideration of the group you’re
playing in might lead to an early
character death or the other characters
might not want to travel with such an
untrustworthy adventurer in our maze
Arcana game we don’t use alignments as
the entire world exists in shades of
grey the way nations relate to one
another and the many wars that break out
it’s never clear who’s good and who’s
evil over the last year of playing each
of our characters have changed some more
lawful somewhere
but seem to constantly change based on
their experiences Asia being non-human
has found she relates to the monsters of
DRO am more than the humans of the five
nations what she thought was good now
seems destructive and chaotic her
wanting to side with the Honorable orcs
/ the greedy self-righteous humans
happened over time although it might
seem to the rest of the nation as she’s
turning towards the dark side
what’s lawful good to one person might
seem evil to another you’re generally
good adventuring party who goes into a
cave full of goblins to find treasure to
bring back to supper riches actually the
band of murdering robbers from the
goblins point of view we live in a world
of graves and it’s more true to our
natures humans to live within this range
over time I stopped worrying about
alignment the characters our party come
across influences the decisions my
character makes like me my character
evolves as the story unfolds these
alignments outline a person’s moral code
the foundation of their attitude towards
the world but it’s in their experiences
and interactions over time and the
relationships to others that these
alignment shift and change the most
important thing to think about is who
your character is to the rest of the
party and the world around you do you
have evil tendencies when an evil
character come across as evil outwardly
to others or would they seem friendly at
first to lure the other adventurers into
doing their bidding over time granted
there are plenty of folks who still use
alignment in their games just make sure
you let your GM know ahead of time what
you want to play and figure out how that
works for the group there must be a
reason for everyone to want to be
together and want to work together over
the span of time some games don’t allow
evil characters or characters that
disrupt the collective proofing
I could roll on about this but instead
let’s discuss this with musician actor
and voice of Drizzt Jason Charles Miller
yeah it’s so exciting the voice of
Drizzt it’s pretty awesome
I thought you that’s wicked cool it was
pretty incredible when I found out about
the audition even I you called
yeah yeah I just said what do I have to
do to get this part huh and luckily they
were I didn’t have to do anything
nefarious it’s good we were here to talk
about alignment in your back to basics
mm-hmm tell us about what you learned I
mean because you went back all the way
back to the beginning right and it was
different than the nine times right now
so what we did is we ran on forever
verse we ran a three episode arc of
basic D&D the rules that came out in
1980 which were even different than the
ones that came out in 79 or 81 it was
the ones that came out specifically in
1980 which was the first box I ever had
that my dad bought for me and in basic
D&D there were only three alignments
lawful neutral and chaotic so that
actually gave us a huge sort of you know
a wide berth on what to do kind of
freedom though yeah and knowing the
players so well already because we had
already been playing together for months
on forever verse I sort of assigned
characters to them based on their
personalities and even their names so
like Hector was Hector the Magnificent
um a chaotic elf who and that’s another
thing in basic classes and races were
the same so you you’re not a human
fighter
you’re just a fighter who’s a human
elves are magic users and fighters
halflings are fighters dwarves or
fighters thieves and clerics are always
humans it was a very it’s a it literally
was a very basic version of the rules
but it was a lot of fun because you know
you sort of threw the rules aside and
just played the adventure do you find
that people played the chaotic
characters as if they were evil like how
do they interpret what chaotic means I
feel like they did take it more in an
evil slant but maybe they’re playing it
a little more like neutral evil or
lawful evil but I think like when you
see the word chaotic and there’s nothing
beyond it your brain automatically goes
okay I’m gonna be a mischief maker with
this guy yeah I think it’s really good
to look up on to Google or Wikipedia
what these words actually mean because
when I was studying for this episode I
was enlightened a bit because I had a
misconception of what things were even
though I had a basic idea of what they
were but yeah go look it up on the
internet it’s really fascinating how do
you view and use alignment in your games
well it’s interesting like I actually
see alignment everywhere I think I play
like in real world and in the game I
think that I played Indy for so long and
through so many different versions and
interpretations of it that um like I see
that alignment chart permanently all the
time constantly filling in boxes yes
exactly somehow that guys kind of I
think he’s pretty you know maybe he’s
kind of good or he sort of Wow it might
be lawful good I think this guy’s like a
real good guy you know what I mean or
whatever so I think that alignment is is
an important part of the game even
though I know that like it’s not being
stressed as much anymore I love that
part of it because it’s almost a guide
for the DM and the player if the player
is going too far out of the alignment
that he picked you know that’s something
that sort of guides your role-playing
and also as a GM you can sort of real
someone back if are you sure he would
make that decision I you know if that’s
the alignment that you really are I
don’t know if he would do that oh
interesting that you would guide your
player that way yeah I mean I’m not so
much hands-on I like to let people you
know play the game let them have fun but
at the same time if a character is a
lawful good paladin
and all of a sudden wants to do
something very out of character you know
up until recently you could you know
even now you’d still will get penalized
quite a bit in most campaigns for for
doing something that far out of
alignment if it’s not in line with your
with your characters sort of ethos I
think like the the classic paladin is
the classic lawful good paladin is sort
of a prime example of of how alignment
can constrict a character yeah I don’t
know I think that it’s a good foundation
right but as the characters progress
things change or the people that they
interact with all of a sudden that that
person or monster or whatever brings out
something yeah you know so yeah what
normally so maybe in town they’re lawful
good but outside of town they become
more chaotic good or I attic neutral
like you know I know because people have
that range and I think that characters
should have that range another thing
that’s really fascinating to me is
lawful good and lawful evil because I’ve
always been afraid of lawful good
because I envisioned this character
that’s like so good and so rules-based
that you know maybe they love their
friends but when it comes down to it
they may have to do the honorable thing
and rat on them right yeah a lawful good
character could be like you know my my
party I love the people in my party but
you broke the law so I’m going to have
to testify against you that’s what I
would see a lawful good character doing
in a game you know like you know I wish
we could complete our quest but I have
to turn you in to the authorities now
you know so having a lawful good
character in any campaign can be
challenging if the quest that you’re on
doesn’t lock in with with what that
person what that character believes
because on the opposite end of the
spectrum chaotic evil they can do
whatever the hell they want I mean it’s
in my mind a chaotic evil care
there is sort of the ultimate selfish
person it’s it’s like you know and any
sort of any sort of in modern day like
any kind of super selfish character you
can think of like on steroids you know
they just do whatever they want any time
they want to benefit them now they may
fall into the constructs of whatever
society says they should be and they may
follow the law for years until they’ve
got the right time to strike so so then
so you don’t have to have your character
outwardly look like any of those right
you it’s mostly internal anyway you
could be a chaotic evil character that
acts lawful good for years and and I
think that Dexter and I think NPCs to
like it’s fun as a GM you can have
chaotic evil NPCs that might be the
mayor of a town or the prince that’s
giving you the quest and you go on for
quests for them and it’s great and then
the fifth quest he totally stabs you in
the back you’re like wait a second
you’re not as good as I thought I was
following your rules but your rules were
based out of whatever crazy ideas that
you have about the world around you
right so if you go really deep with
alignment it’s it’s it’s them it’s
almost like the more power you have and
the less fear you have and that’s when
alignment really shows you know it shows
that your character of people again I
think that is really important to where
you know you go about your adventure
every day and you know you’re doing your
thing you’re camping you go but it’s
under those really stressful situations
that it comes out I might notice that in
my real life like there is a version of
Satine who comes out we call her the
Dark Phoenix and it’s like oh this is
this is a more amplified version of what
up I’m capable of so maybe somebody like
we said somebody who’s good maybe it’s a
little bit different under certain
circumstances right stressful stress and
throughout a long campaign like maybe
one a homebrew campaigner
you’re doing for many months you know if
a character is consistently making
decisions that go against their
alignment then the gym may need to take
him or her aside and be like look I
don’t really think that you’re neutral
good I think you’re more neutral evil
now and we should talk about you know
what penalties or benefits that that
will give the character or take away
from I wouldn’t even discuss it honestly
I would just feel like okay that’s how
you’re playing this now and then change
the environment around that character so
perhaps the character is you know is a
divine character mm-hmm well what is the
what is there the person made worship
how do they think about this change well
sure you could be in the middle of
combat and find that you don’t have any
spells left anymore because you
abandoned the the motto of your God or
the division of what your God wants you
to do so so that’s you do whatever you
want play do whatever you want players
I’ll remember this next time in the
campaign with you ha
yeah you better we’re going to jump in
to the last three questions that ask
everybody and we’re going to make the
answers super quick okay
pregame house rule I take this actually
from my friend Jay Schultz and when he
was DMing our game no cell phones no
checking your cell phones will have
breaks and you can do it then but he
wanted your absolute attention and if
someone were to like look at their phone
or if the phone was ringing the whole
game would stop you know and I think
that’s actually kind of a cool rule and
it makes the game go quicker and flow
better agreed what is your favorite GM
moment my favorite GM moment was I had
created this amazing underground
dwelling that I wanted my characters to
get to so that we could use that as a
base of of operations but of course they
needed to clear out the monsters that
were there and so the my favorite Jam
moment is when they cleared out the
cleared out the
the underground base and took it over
for themselves and then we could run our
campaign from there that was like a very
satisfying moment nice quick tip to the
audience there’s been a lot of great
quick tips on the show but I had
something I wanted to reveal a secret so
this is a special secret so for years
and years when I would be interviewed
for Godhead people would ask they would
always ask Oh your band’s name is
Godhead where did you guys get that name
and my sort of blanket boilerplate
response was well Godhead means the
closest thing you can be next to God so
for a lot of people that’s religion
sometimes it’s their job and for us it’s
our music and then if we go ah and that
was like my deep answer but the real
answer of where I got the name God had
for my band was inside this issue of
fantasy gamer which I believed at the
time was sort of a competitor to Dragon
Magazine when she maybe for which I had
which I had a subscription to so I had
this since I was 12 and there was
something in here that made me go that
would be a great name for a band
and here it is right here the Haven of
the Godhead and at age 12 I said one day
I’m gonna have a band named Godhead and
it was from this issue of fantasy gamer
and that’s really where her name came
from oh my god thank you for sharing
that that’s cold oh wow thanks that was
an amazing show thank you for joining us
here on geek and sundry thank you Jason
for joining us I love your brain where
can we find you on the Internet
Jason Charles Miller comm on Twitter I’m
Jason C Miller and every other social
media platform Jason Charles Miller also
you can find me every Thursday right
here on geek and sundry’s youtube on
forever verse awesome I’m setting
Phoenix you can find me at setting
Phoenix you can catch me every Sunday on
twitch.tv slash maser kana and orphan
echo and on
Tuesday’s dungeon mastering Furies reach
on twitch.tv slash D and D and on sagas
with sundry dread on project alpha comm
which I did the music for – that’s true
can you do something else for us sure
what do GM is such a fear the last thing
you remember was you’re on watch it was
second shift which is always the worst
watch a few hours of sleep and then
you’re being kicked awake by your gnome
illusionist party remember
hey share 10 that’s last thing you
remember now you’re all alone the prone
position you’re looking around and you
realize your entire party is gone if you
want a few more moments and you realize
your party’s not gone you’re in a
different place
the forest is different the trees are
wider taller and they’re black you reach
out and touch the tree closest to you
you realize it’s petrified you try to
stand and then you realize your feet are
bound
you reach down to try to pull the ropes
away and those aren’t ropes their webs
and now your hand is stuck
the next thing you see are two red eyes
coming closer and closer to you
and you hear echoing everywhere even
inside your head the words who st. you
roll for initiative
[Music]