The DM is also a Player, Running The Game #92

the hardest part of what i do i'm not complaining by the way harder than riding and designing kingdoms and warfare harder than running mcdm if indeed i do run mcdm i'm not a lump of hash i'm in charge of battery records i think the hardest thing for me is figuring out what the next video should be it's a pain in the ass it's been like two months three since the last video and yeah mostly that's because i've been hyper focused on finishing the design for kingdoms and warfare which you'll be happy to know is now done the design not the manuscript but it's also because i thought i knew what the next video was about i thought we should talk about awarding experience because it's something a lot of new dms asked me about especially after their first session so i thought better do a video about that but it's just not very interesting to me there is some stuff to talk about there especially about the history of this subject but i just i wasn't interested in doing it also i felt like we've been away for a while this will be the first video in months is this really the best subject for the first video after a long break so i thought i knew what the next video was but i just wasn't into it it felt like an assignment something i was obligated to do because i said i would i was not looking forward to it in fact i was sort of dreading it does that sound familiar in other words it's not enough that i think i know what i need to do next i also need to be excited about it if it feels like an assignment well then there's a problem hey what's up everybody i'm matt colville i did a video a while ago in which i said that i have fun running d d if my players had fun playing if they had fun i had fun and that was not a euphemism or me being clever i meant it literally that story about my friend asking if i had fun and i said did you have fun and she said yes and so i said then i had fun that really happened and that is really how i feel however there is another side to that coin and that is i am also a player at the table if my players had a bad time well then i didn't do my job and i feel bad and that means i didn't have fun but i should also enjoy running the game i am one of the players at the table d d is weird we divide the table up between the players and the dm and we have this prop to literally represent that but while that is true the table is the dm and the players and that distinction is real the dm is also a player at the table we are all playing d d in other words you should enjoy running d you should have fun too and you should be able to have fun while you are running you folks didn't see this but after the battle with the black iron pack matt o'driscoll leapt up out of his chair pointed to the table with all the minis still set up and said that was awesome best d d so far and yeah it felt good to hear one of my players say that they had fun so i had fun but also i really enjoyed running that battle it was the first test of the action-oriented design and it worked it needed refinement but i had fun running that battle and i think you can tell if you watch and it's really really important you understand that i had fun because that is the kind of stuff i like doing in d d i like building complex encounters to challenge my friends i once spent six hours building a single bad guy for d d specifically third edition which was way more complex than fifth edition it was a bug bearer who used a whip and for some reason at that time in my life i was obsessed with doing everything by the rules and so i had to do all of this work scrub through like six different books to figure out which class levels this bugbear needed at which levels so he qualified for the feats i needed to make his stuff work and the whole time i was thinking if this dude dies in one round i am never running d d again and i think a lot of dms have that experience of the cool villain they made just collapsing like a flan in the cupboard well this bug bear lived like seven rounds and it was an epic battle and i loved it the players were engaged and challenged and it was memorable and dramatic and as it was working i was just delighted i was in d d heaven i was having fun the reason i bring this up is because running dnd involves so much it is important you know what you like about it what about running d d is fun for you not what is expected of you that's not fun and not what about hanging out is fun if it turns out you just like hanging out with your friends and running the game is a chore well then there's a problem there are so many different elements to running the game and no single dm can do them all or all equally well and that's okay so you need to figure out what you like about dming and focus on that and i think you can basically ignore the stuff you don't like if you don't like running monsters that's okay lots of tables have very little combat i would suggest probably there are better games for you than d d if you don't like running monster encounters but that's another video you know i've played with lots of dms who weren't into role-playing they didn't speak in character and i tend to be more rp focused as a player but i still had fun in their game because they made sure their game had the stuff they liked in it and since they loved the world building or the politics so did i because their passion translated into them having fun and that made it engaging for us so what do you like about playing d d when i'm writing and this includes writing for video games or writing novels i often hit a block where i know what i need to write you know i wrote an outline in which i figured out that in chapter 62 this character figures out something important but when i sit down to write it i'm not interested i'm not inspired nothing happens i start typing a few words and i'm not feeling it and i give up this happens all the time it happens when i'm running d it's a few hours before we're supposed to play and i just i do not care about running tonight but i need to look forward to it otherwise i won't be into it and it will suck if running the game is only an assignment a responsibility something i'm doing because i said i would then i will not have fun and the game will suck so yes if my players had fun i had fun but if i'm not having fun running the game then they will not have fun playing and then we're all feeling like that was a waste of time afterwards probably the number one reason i give for not running and postponing a session is i'm not ready but i would say most of the time it's really just that i'm not in the mood i need to be in a certain state of mind running the game is performative i'm gonna put on a little show and i'm gonna manage this table of players and the dm has a lot more responsibility than everyone else at the table and sometimes i just want to hang out with my friends and have fun and not worry about that responsibility but that's hard to explain so i say i'm not ready and i know i'm letting down my friends when i say it but sometimes there's just nothing for it i don't feel like doing the song and dance let's play something else tonight and that has to be okay i'm a big believer in the players understanding that soon it will be their turn to run the game because that means when one dm isn't feeling it another one can run their game but there is a trick you can use that helps with that kind of writer's block or dm block writer's block and dm block are very similar there's a chapter i know i need to write because it's important to the plot but i'm not feeling it well that's because the chapter is necessary but boring so put some tension in there i don't remember where i heard this but the phrase i use is you need to put a gun on the table two people are talking about something important but boring well you're gonna be bored writing it and it will take forever to write and when it's done it will suck two people are talking about something boring and one of them puts a gun on the table well now there's tension is he gonna shoot me why did he do that why did he even bring a gun here almost every time i have writer's block it's because the thing i have to write lacks tension another phrase i use to myself is well this is boring so someone needs to die i don't mean that literally what i mean is we need some drama in this scene anytime i have that kind of writer's block it's always always always because the scene is necessary but boring so instead of thinking about how to plow through and write that boring scene i need to recognize it's not interesting and change it to make it exciting for me to write that is the trick what would make the scene exciting to write it works every time if running the game feels like an assignment and you're not into it you need to come up with something you're excited by something you can't wait to put in front of your players and in order to do that you need to know two things one what was supposed to happen and why are you bored by it it actually takes a little work to realize the reason you're not looking forward to running is because you're just not interested in what's on deck you're not inspired you know what's supposed to happen next and you think that knowing what's next is all you need like i prepared this i did all the work isn't that enough well actually no the work is coming up with something you're excited to run so what's boring about the next session two you need to know and this is the most important bit you need to know what you like about dming and it's not always obvious a lot of people get started because they were inspired by someone else but someone else's inspiration will only get you so far you are not that person and they are not behind the screen you are you need to find out what you love about running dnd and then put that into your game one thing i find inspires me when i'm bored with dnd is i look through the monster manual sometimes just the vanilla monster manual but sometimes i'll go on the web and i'll search for monsters by challenge rating to find stuff that's about the right level for the players give or take and i'll just read through a list and i'll see some monster i've never heard of but that sounds cool what book is that in or i'll flip through some other monster book maybe not even a d d book i'm just looking for inspiration which often means surprise seeing an encounter from a different point of view oh but what if it was this cool undead thing or what if there was an elf noble in the next room and then i'll use that in the next encounter instead of whatever i thought was going to happen that's how we ended up with a mind witness teleporting a bunch of drow into a tavern to fight the shield of gravesford which was epic and memorable and something i just made up like three hours before the game i just saw this picture that was all it took i was immediately inspired i wasn't really interested in what the book said this was i had my own idea what this monster was so i read the text and some of it i thought wasn't right for what i wanted but some of it was so i stole the bits i liked and i filled in the rest with my own ideas i was really excited to use this monster and i built a whole encounter around it and suddenly i was really excited about running the game took maybe two hours now that worked for me because that is part of what i like about running d d i like creating unique encounters i like using new monsters something else i like is introducing new npcs if i'm down on the game tonight i'm not feeling it well maybe it's because there's no one interesting for me to play if i make some new npc for them to meet then maybe we're onto something lots of great characters in my campaign exist because i was bored and i wasn't looking forward to running the game and so i just made up someone for them to meet and interacting with that npc can chew through an entire hour you got to remember you only need enough content ready for about four hours of play and that's not really that much uh your players will talk amongst themselves argue plot scheme and that's time you're not running you're just listening and for me that is one of the joys of dungeon mastering if my players are arguing about what to do next proposing different ideas then they're taking the game and my world seriously and that is fun to listen to then an encounter a good encounter can easily chew up 90 minutes but the trick is i know what i like about running the game so it's relatively easy for me to come up with something that excites me that being said sometimes i punt something that helps me when i'm stuck and i don't feel like writing or dming is i watch a movie obviously this is personal i love movies but a good action movie usually has at least one awesome scene or character that inspires me and inspiration doesn't necessarily mean i want to rip it off it just means being excited by something epic and dramatic and that can get me back in the mood but yeah sometimes i'll rip off a character or a plot point wholesale you know maybe the thing you love about running d d is making maps okay you got three hours before the show i always call it a show even before you start streaming you got three hours before the show draw a map draw a new map right now i don't know what it's a map of you're the one who likes maps but make it a map you're interested in a map to hidden treasure a map leading to the dragon's lair a map of an ancient temple then drop it in front of your players they find it in the next room or an npc gives it to them now they have something new and unexpected to talk about and they will be surprised and engaged and you can listen and they will come up with ideas about that map that will inspire you as they do it and then you're off to the races when the players come up with an idea you love but obviously don't have anything prepared for because they they just invented this idea then throw a combat at them you just need to delay until the end of the session and then spend the next week working on that idea that excited you that's what it comes down to being excited about the next session and sometimes that happens because of stuff the players came up with if you bought or even wrote an adventure that's great but just because it's written down doesn't mean you have to do what it says you are in charge not the adventure if you're bored by the next bit if you're uninspired throw it out maybe replace it or just delay the next bit for now and toss in something new something you're excited by to keep you going you can always come back to the boring bit later so that's my advice you need to figure out why do i like running dnd think back to the sessions that you enjoyed while you were running them what was happening that gave that session so much energy at the end of the day you are also a player you need to have fun you cannot only concern yourself with your friends enjoyment that won't work the first thing you need to do as a dm the first and most important thing is you need to put something in front of your players that hooks them and makes them excited to play tonight the way you do that is you find something you are excited by because if you're excited by it whatever it is if it's a monster or an encounter or a map or an npc or an item or some conflict if you're excited by it that excitement will come out at the table and your friends will be hooked so what about sitting behind the screen excites you know that and you know how to have fun and if you're having fun your players will probably have fun that's it folks that's the video i hope someone out there hears this and it helps them relax and enjoy themselves tons of work has been done on kingdoms and warfare we just published two big kickstarter updates showing off the core design i think it's going to drastically expand the kind of games you can run please go check them out i'm super excited by the product and i think you will be too if you like any of this please come by our store where you can pre-order the book or any of our incredibly cool minis or just a shirt because my work on kingdoms and warfare is wrapping up you will get more videos soon click the bell icon down there if you want an alert when we upload a video you can follow us on twitter and we have an incredibly popular discord as well as a great subreddit if you just want to hang out and talk nerd stuff links to all this in the doobly-doo finally every time we do a new video we do a live stream here on youtube at 11am on friday they are always fun tons of great questions and interactions come by hang out it's cool until next time peace out

Channel: Matthew Colville

Views: 222,950

Keywords: Matt Colville, Matthew Colville, Dungeons and Dragons, D&D, Dungeons & Dragons, Running the Game, Running D&D, Playing D&D, Playing Dungeons and Dragons, roleplaying

Id: n-fM9UQIaLE

Length: 15min 15sec (915 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 29 2020