How DnD DMs Referee Their Games

how do the most famous DMS in the world keep their games fair and balanced well let's check a bunch out starting with Chris Perkins Whose advice is to remember that the rules are there to serve you not the other way around if something comes up in your game and you're not sure how to handle that particular situation sure fall back on the rules if you have a player who say wants to push over another player and everyone at the table is arguing about how it should be done and you don't have a good idea in the moment then use the official shoving rules but you don't need to let the rules dictate how every single situation goes if you have a player who say wants to push an NPC over and it would be hilarious if they did or it would push the story in cool unexpected ways then you can just let it happen or you could make the shove a bonus action just this one time you can do whatever you want don't let the rules rule you you rule the rules this video is sponsored by describe it's a super easily searchable Library full of descriptions sounds and interactive m apps and it's made my prep time so much easier also just the ability to look up descriptions and stuff on the Fly join games very helpful and your players won't even know they also just released Opus a web app where you can prep a description have music Ambience and sound effects playing as well as much much more over 3,500 sound options are available and it's made my game so much more immersive for a free 30-day trial use the link and code in the description and before we move on and take a look at Matt Mercer one more tip from Chris Perkins it's fine to not allow something on one side we just said you can use the rules when you need them or move away from them when you see fit but that doesn't mean you should allow your players to do whatever they want there's this idea that you should always yes and and never say no but if the rules don't allow for something and you don't want it to happen as a DM because it will destabilize the the game there's like certain core rules that I think all DMS would want to make absolutely solid and never be broken and as a DM it's up to you to figure out what those are for you you but if your players want to do something against the rules and you as a DM simply don't want it to happen then you should say no the whole yes and thing is great for keeping the flow of the game going but a flow game is nothing without structure so don't feel bad about saying no as long as you have the rules to Back you up the rules are there to serve you Matt Mercer will often break rules as written if the logic doesn't make sense a great example of this is at the Wembley live show where he fundamentally just asks Marissa to tell him how Sentinel would stop a giant monster because it just doesn't make sense for it to be able to do that even though the rules say it should that is 15 damage Sentinel he does not move yes please tell me how Sentinel stops this creature Fair are you being patronizing I don't know what you mean yes I am it is not stopped by Sentinel I'm sorry but it was a natural 20 I know and it did some damage I wish I could say that but logically I'm going to say that and this is a great way to deal with rules lawyers who want something to happen because it says it should in the rules but it just wouldn't make sense in the game world when a player wants to do something questionable using rules as written to back them up with their request do what Matt does and ask the players how they think it would work like if a player just wants to hide in an open field ask them how they do it how do they hide in this open field and if they can't give you a good answer tell them they can't do it or maybe they do come up with a really good answer maybe they have a blanket that they throw over themselves that's grass colored or maybe they are halfling and the grass is really tall in this area of the field so they just get real low to the ground give them a chance to plead their case and if they come up with a logical cool argument you can let them do it but if it doesn't make sense to you the DM in the moment you can make a ruling to ignore the rules as written in this exception and move on and just as a bonus Matt Mercer can be pretty cheeky with rules has written to heighten the player's experience an example of this is how he handles perception checks as far as rules written goes you would never ask a player to roll a perception check or any check to find something really or see something if there was nothing to be found or seen but Matt will ask for a rule if the player asks a very specific question for example if a player asks if something that they can see has visibly changed Matt will ask for a perception check even if he knows nothing's changed and even if it's super obvious it hasn't changed and never will change touch the red stone yeah we I point out the red stone in the stained glass window that hasn't changed right make a perception CH [ __ ] Mercer 19 looks pretty much the same as you recall God and you might be like isn't that a waste of time asking players to roll when there's absolutely no reason to and the answer is yes to an extent but you don't do it all the time this is like a very rare every once in a wild thing but doing it sometimes does two things one it creates a chance for the player to fail and just hilarity would ensue and two it kind of makes it harder for a player to meta game for example if the player asks if there's any traps in the room and the DM just says no because there aren't any then the player knows there's no traps in the room but to flip it if a player asks the DM if there's any traps in the room and there are traps in a room the DM now asks the player to roll to see if they can find the traps and even on a failed roll the player's character doesn't know there's traps in a room but the player definitely does because why would they have to roll if there weren't traps in a room so this mat trick comes in useful while there's no need to make your players role if they don't have to if they go out of their way and ask to fundamentally do a check I'll let them do it it will keep up suspense and help curb metagaming oh speaking of perception checks why don't you roll one to see if you can see the Subscribe button below the DC is like a two so chances are you do see it it's uh right next to the like button a Bria AAR has a really interesting DM style when it comes to keeping games fair and balanced and that's that she holds her players accountable for not knowing the rules themselves I don't mean she expects players to know every rule in the game but she does seem to expect them to at least know their character sheets know how their characters work I've seen it a few times where she gets quite feisty with players who who try and do a spell without knowing how it fully works or try to do something when they're clearly they're just not reading what's in front of them fully I remember one in particular I think it's exandria unlimited I'll see if I can find a clip where a player casts a spell or takes an action that causes them to lose invisibility but they didn't know that the invisibility would drop when they did that and there was kind of this moment where the player was like oh I wouldn't have done that if I had known that I would have lost my invisibility and ab Bria was like well sorry the information is in front of you and your C she like that's your responsibility oh no and I cast invisibility on you that's breaking your invisibility no you to use it [ __ ] you're invisible now and I just looked down sorry I didn't know work you have the spell right [ __ ] you are responsible for that information my dude God damn it it was almost a punishment for the player not reading that cat sheet properly and I got to say it did come across as a bit harsh but I think every DM out there has that pet peeve of players not knowing how their characters work at all I mean they created the damn thing the DM is trying to do so much stuff and when a player kind of has a spell on that couch she in front of them and asked the DM like oh I how does this work and the DM is just like I'm doing like you tell me just know how it works cuz it makes games so much faster so kind of punishing players like this who often Mis read spells or sometimes just don't read Spells at all will encourage them to actually learn their character sheets which is such a big weight off a DM's shoulders another a Brier observation that I've noticed is that she doesn't really suffer fools lightly and I've kind of seen every DM in this video do this to a certain extent but it goes a long way to keeping your games fun fair and balanced and it's the ability to put your players in their place as a DM in a player DM argument or even in a player player argument that you're spectating you have the ability to just say how it is and if players kick back you can just say no because I'm the DM which now that should be kind of a last case scenario cuz no one likes a DM Overlord who's just saying how it is without backing it up but if you as a DM are trying to prioritize all the players fun at the table if you are trying to be a referee fair and impartial and players keep pushing back and arguing with you or if they're just acting in a way that's kind of dragging down everyone's fun at the table then it's completely in your purview to tell the player how it is and say we're moving on and then if the player keeps pushing back after that which would be insane then feel free to pull that player aside from the rest of the group and and talk to them and try and figure out what their actual problem is and if you still can't come to an understanding after that maybe this group's not the right fit for that individual player and this is really where a session zero comes into play because normally you would make a kind of social contact with your players which means you can really back yourself up as a referee DM at times like this because you have something in place where you have said if there's a disagreement or if something happens in particular or if people are unhappy this is what happens I mean I got all my players to agree at session zero that if someone keeps cancelling last minute or keeps missing sessions week in week in week in to the point where there's just an empty chair for most of my most of the time then that player should be okay with stepping back from the campaign stepping down from it cuz we have other friends who want to play and it's kind of unfair to hog that seat and you can set up a bunch of little rules like this that you get your players to agree to one of which should be the DM gets the final say on all things and when the DM decides to move on everyone moves on and doesn't hold any like bad feelings or ill intentions about the decision I mean it kind of becomes less of a social contract and a borderline actual contract fact when you really get them agreeing on particular points but it sets expectations for the game moving forward and gives you an out to just shut down most issues sometimes before they even begin and I actually have a little D and D contract between DM and players written up for free on my patreon right now you can grab this you can kind of change details dates and times and things like that put your own points in there take some of mine out whatever suits your table and you can get your players to agree with this and if issues pop up in the future you can kind of like pull it out and be like Oh remember when we talked about this and this is what we said would happen well yeah also if you go over there and you want to become a paid member of my patreon I mean I wouldn't be mad and thank you renan Lee Mulligan is a great referee simply by knowing the rules of the game so damn well and he has no issue bending them if the story benefits from it or the player's fun is heightened because of it but one of my favorite things about how Brennan deals with the rules of the game is that he's not afraid to Homebrew them completely he either bows from other places or just creates his own completely but he doesn't necessarily stay sck to rules as written and he does a bunch of this in his actual play The Never After he has a death blow rule where if someone crits on someone else there's a chance the target could die in one hit here's another homeb rule where if you take a ton of damage there's a chance you take a level of exhaustion he uses a a call shot rule where if you have advantage on taking a shot you can choose to instead take disadvantage and if you succeed you can hit a pinpoint really small accurate area with the hit and a great rule called rolling with emphasis where you roll two d20s and take whichever number is furthest away from 10 so if you roll a a three and a 16 the three is further away than 10 so you take the three or if you rolled a 19 and an 8 you would take the 19 cuz 19 is furthest away from 10 this means that when you roll with emphasis you are way more likely to have a really big number or a really low number which is great for like the everything or nothing rules the rules where just get getting like a 9 or an 11 would be really anticlimactic because you want to either really really succeed or really really fail and I saw most of that info from the dungeon coach and their video called four intense D and D house rules from Dimension 20 never after so if you want to know more about them check that out but my point is don't be afraid to make up your own rules or changing aspects of other rules and just do it temporarily just to see if your players and table prefer them if they don't work roll it back just let your players know that that's what you're doing open community ation is so important here and just make sure you take feedback also Brennan and pretty much every DM in this video is not afraid to look up a rule in the rule book drawing a game this is like a super small point but it's really important as a DM you're not expected to know every single rule and especially for new DMS the pressure is on for them to just keep things flowing keep things moving just go go go and if you don't really know how a rule Works um just go with whatever in the moment and that's fine to be honest you can totally do that like we said ear with Chris Perkins stuff the rules are there to serve you not the other way around but if you are a DM who does want to stick very closely to the rules of the game and that's fine too then don't be afraid to stop gam playay temporarily pull out the player's handbook pull out the DMG pull out whatever book you're using and look up how the rule works or how the spell works if Brennan and Matt are willing to do that in front of thousands of people during an actual play which is high budget and costs money then you can definitely just do it at your home game with your friends give them a chance to nip to the bathroom or grab a glass of water or a beer the only thing is when I see man Brenan do this they're really fast flicking through those books like the only tip here is to kind of know the layout of the DMG and the players handbook or at least know how to use the contents page quickly because you can be in and out of that book in no time if you know roughly how it's laid out and another great thing all these dmms do is they referee through NPCs like if they have a dispute or an issue that pops up or a player's trying to do something that they shouldn't be able to do in character as an NPC the DM can say no that won't work for whatever reason within the game World players are much less likely to fight back if they're talking to an NPC it will keep them in character as well keeping people role playing keeping them in the game makes them less likely to think outside the game at how rules work in fact using NPCs as tools like this is incredibly powerful but to use them in this way you need to know exact ly how to create and run them and you can learn exactly how the world's most popular DMS do just that in this video here thanks for watching

Channel: Bonus Action

Views: 228,676

Keywords: critical role, dimension 20, dnd, dungeon master, nadpod

Id: BlHWSqd7XR4

Length: 14min 36sec (876 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 29 2024