Most Copied Sayings DM's Use To Hook Players

some of the most beloved DMS on the planet have some powerful phrases that they use often that keep everyone around the table laughing and having a good time and while you'd have to use these exact sayings in the same way using some variation of them or just the idea behind them will make your games more memorable and keep your players coming back for more so let's start with phase number one let's talk about of course Matthew Mercer who uses this saying all the time you can certainly try you see this is a very powerful phase indeed because it accomplishes three things the first is it reminds the players they can do literally anything in this game or at least they can try to do anything the only limit is your imagination the second thing they're saying accomplishes is that the undertone is that whatever the player tries there probably will be consequences so are you sure you want to do that and the third thing it accomplishes and this is where the true power of this saying lies in my opinion but there's almost a level of goading to it when the DM says you can certainly try they're daring you to try go on do it it's a three-pronged attack where if used correctly it will make a player try something crazy and out the box even though they know it could go badly but you know everyone's gonna have fun in the process it's also just a great response for when someone says something just completely ridiculous that you know is not gonna work okay say The Bard wants to seduce that Dragon The Bard can certainly try and if they do try and they get in that 20 don't worry and that 20 does not necessarily mean an automatic success in what the player's intention was it can simply mean the best possible outcome from that attempt if the bad tries to seduce a dragon and gets another 20 he doesn't seduce the dragon but the best possible outcome does happen maybe the dragon now likes The Bard and gives The Bard some gold or maybe the dragon just doesn't see the party as a threat anymore and doesn't burn them to a crisp that's a success so the next time a player asks if they can do something whether the answer is a simple yes a yes sport or a well that's impossible say instead you can certainly try so let's move on to our next DM phase to keep players having fun and take a look at abria Iron Guard and her phrase what you don't see is now this is an exceptional face because that's the ends we want to often immerse our players so much that they literally only know what their characters would know but the issue with this is a lot of build up and suspense that happens narratively the characters would never know about if the story is about a shadowy Creed picture following the player's home at night silently getting closer following them from tree to tree until finally a season opening and it pounces well from the player's point of view they spend that whole time just walking home adding details for the players to know that the characters don't can add so much tension and mystery and excitement to the game so next time you roll on something almost happens to the characters what doesn't or story beat happens behind the scenes maybe there's a consequence of a character's action that the characters would never know about and say what you don't see is then tell them what they don't say and obviously like everything else in D and I'm going to say this a lot this won't work for every table if your table doesn't like role-playing that much or doesn't like knowing things that their characters wouldn't know or maybe they like meta gaming a little too much then extra information like this can often lead to negative consequences but if your players like it and are confident enough in their own ability to not let player knowledge affect character actions then this face is definitely worth it which brings us on to our next saying which is used by Brennan Lee Mulligan and different variations of these phrases are used by different DMS I'm not saying any particular DM cloned any of these phrases what some DMS do use them very well and Brennan's is how does your player feel in this situation Brennan asks this a lot particular players when their characters are experiencing a place or a moment or an NPC or something that resonates with that character or their backstory and it's so powerful because not only does it put the spotlight on the player in that moment and maybe also allows the DM a little bit of time to lock something up or move stuff around but also because you can single out players who you know want to role play more but maybe don't have the opportunity to all players who haven't had something to do for a while you can pull them back in and it makes a player really think about what their character's motivations are and what makes them tick it can often lead to some real time fleshing out their characters reading not only more life into themselves but the world around them as well and it's also just a lot of fun to see what players come out with when the attention is suddenly and unexpectedly thrust upon them C players that's what it's like every time you ask me the name of that random NPC shopkeeper it's bobbert by the way they're all called Bobbitt okay please subscribe and let's move on to our next DM phase and I didn't want to use Matt Mercer twice here but he often says one of the best goddamn lines in d d history and that is of course how do you want to do this in my personal experience this is the line that gets the biggest cheers at any table you say it when a player's character takes away the last hit points of a big bat then the player explains in detail how their character kills a thing or you know knock them out but let's face it probably kill them and once again this is a multi-plonged saying because not only is it a celebratory moment signifying the end of a big battle and allowing a player to describe a Mortal Combat finisher but for a brief moment gives the dungeon master veins to a player they get to innovate they get to describe the scene I know also thinking about what their character will do how they would act in this situation what would they say it's a fully immersive moment now you might have players that aren't into it all that much they don't want to take the spotlight in those moments and even Matt Mercer occasionally takes their DM Reigns back and then describes the final blow in more detail but it can always become a moment where your DND story becomes not just a thing mostly controlled by a DM but also by the players themselves it's a collaboration and in a similar vein to that and this next phrase can be a two episode every DM Under the Sun everyone uses it that's how powerful this is what is what does it look like when you do this and this pulls together a lot of elements we've already spoken about in this video when a player casts a spell or does something that is visually ambiguous you ask them what it looks like and they describe it to you you'd be surprised how many players there are out there who don't know what the color of their own magic is or don't even know what their Arcane focus is I mean it's in the hands 90 of the time what is it and by asking your players what it looks like when they do things once again put them in the shoes of their characters make something about who they are and what they look like and it allows everyone else from the table to also visualize what's going on in that moment it's great for all round Player Development and immersion and it can also just lead to players coming up with some really cool visualizations in the mind now obviously as with everything in DND these phrases may not work for everyone and if they don't work for you throw them out the window but every phase we've spoken about actually has the same goal in mind to encourage or facilitate memorable moments you can certainly try leads to players certainly trying what you don't see is leads to wait I didn't see that moment how does that make you feel leads to compelling character growth moments and how do you want to do this and what's it look like when you do this leads to you finding out exactly how your players do this and it's always awesome and as a DM using these phrases or variations of them will do the same thing for you create moments and memories for both you and your players alike unless I see something else that can create these moments but I also learned from all the DM we spoke about in this video and it's all about taking the spotlight off yourself and I talk about it and many other tips in this video here so watch that next

Channel: Bonus Action

Views: 841,254

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

Id: D36J6pg22Oo

Length: 7min 32sec (452 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 04 2023