- Many people look at Matt
Mercer's amazing success as a Dungeon Master and
wonder how he does it. And let's forget about the
voice acting for a moment. Yes, he's an incredible voice actor but let's just set that aside. The fact remains that he is
an outstanding Dungeon Master. So what is the secret to his
success as a Dungeon Master? How does he run such spectacular games? After all, if we only
knew what his secrets are, then we could all run
amazing games too, right? Well, let me unveil the
secret of his secret. He has no secret. I submit to you that Matt Mercer and other pro DMs are open books. They're only real secret is that they are exceptionally good at the basics
of being a Dungeon Master. And if you and I can begin
to master these basics, our games can begin to
approach the awesomeness that is a Critical Role game. These are the basics that pro DMs, such as Matt Mercer, excel at. Number one: preparation. Some of the very worst
games I've ever played in or heard other players tell me about were run by Dungeon Masters
who didn't prepare enough. This is how you recognize those games. Not a whole lot happens,
or it happens very slowly because the DM is busy
looking things up in the book, figuring out encounters
and NPCs on the fly, or just staring at the players, asking them what they do, even though the DM has
given them zero information and zero plot hooks. Now, sometimes this is because the DM intentionally didn't prep because they relied on
their great improvivation (blows raspberries) improvisation skills instead. Improvisation? We can say that. I know because a low prep DMs often boast about not needing to prep because they are such great improvisers, which may or may not be true. Other time it's because
the DM is just lazy and decides to wing it during the game. And other times it's because
the DM is legitimately busy with real life stuff,
job, family, et cetera and doesn't have a lot of time to prep. This is the hill I will die on. A game you spend more time preparing will almost always be better than the game you spend less time preparing for. And that also applies to Dungeon Masters who are actually good at
improvising at the game table. Do you think Matt Mercer
wings all of his games, or do you think he prepares extensively and then improvises when needed? I guarantee you it is the latter. Preparation is a basic skill. Even though I've been running D&D games since the 90s, nearly 30 years, not that time doing something necessarily guarantees expertise, that that is a very true statement, I prepare for my games
almost as much today as I would previously. And the only reason I prep less right now is that I'm also running a YouTube channel and a full blown business which leads to really long work hours. Now I give very little slack
to lazy Dungeon Masters who just don't want to
prep, or those who claim to be great at improvising their games but actually suck at it. And by the way, sometimes
these are one and the same. However, busy Dungeon Masters, that's quite a different story and completely understandable. And that's one of the reasons my team and I publish Lair magazine
for DM Lair Patrons it gives Dungeon Masters a
variety of professionally made easy to use resources that
they can drag and drop into their ongoing campaigns. Adventures, new monsters, digital maps, traps, puzzles and more. I mean, you probably
heard the spiel before. You see, the resources we
publish in Lair Magazine help busy Dungeon Masters
reduce the prep time they need to still run amazing
games for their players. Number two: treating players fairly. Many of the worst Dungeon Masters I've played with were horrible at this. Like they just treated
people like garbage. So my advice here is to be
nice and don't be a jerk. Have the proper mentality
of Dungeon Mastering, which is though you are delivering a challenging game at
times and though you are role playing your monsters to win, because what bad guy doesn't want to win, you are actually rooting for your players. You want your players
to overcome the bad guys even though you are at times
delivering a challenging game. But that is the mentality
that we should strive for as Dungeon Masters, to
root for our players. Be fair with adjudicating rules, while recognizing that
many players are biased and still want rulings
to go in their favor, so they may not always be
pleased with your rulings. One of the things I try to do when there's a questionable
ruling or a rule that is vague or ambiguous is I ask my
players what they think. I get their opinions, their perspectives and then weighing that and weighing what's actually in the books, I make my final ruling. And sometimes when I'm in
doubt and I'm just not sure I just tell my players,
"Okay, I'm gonna roll the d6. If it's a one, two or
three, we go your way. If it's a five, four or six
or whatever, we go my way." Okay, here's another tip too. Speaking of vague and ambiguous
rules, know the rules! I mean as much as you can. How can you adjudicate the game if you don't know the
rules as much as you can, because I totally get that
there are lots of rules and it can be hard to know all of them, but just do your best. And then the big huge one here too is not taking away player agency. Let your players run their own PCs. Don't force them to do things. Let them control their PCs. You got the whole game world, you got all the monsters and NPCs in it. Let your players have their one character that they can do what they want with. Look, Matt Mercer seems like
an extraordinarily nice guy and I really doubt that he's out to get his players characters. I guarantee you he wants them
to overcome the challenges in front of them, even
though there was some recent controversy over two
characters dying in the game. And by the way, for the record, I am on Matt Mercer's side on this one. You all need to chill out. If you think PC is dying in a game that involves combat
with swords and fireballs and monsters that want
to eat your faces off, if you think that dying is
unacceptable in a game like that, perhaps D&D isn't the game for you. And in all honesty, the
fact that Matt Mercer was willing to not hold
back in that moment and save the characters' bacon makes me respect him all the more. By the way, if you're
finding the information in this video helpful,
please gimme a thumbs up and leave a comment for the algorithm. Let us know what you've noticed that great Dungeon Masters tend to do in their games that make them amazing. Number three, designing good adventures. Pro Dungeon Masters excel at designing good adventures
that their players enjoy. Now, I have tons of videos on my channel about designing good D&D adventures and all the different elements
that go into an adventure. Encounters traps, NPCs, et cetera. And I talk about how to balance adventures around the three pillars, combat, exploration and social action. So I'm not gonna rehash all of that here. My point is that cool enjoyable adventures form the backbone of the game. And if you don't have them in your games, your D&D sessions are probably gonna suck. Now, designing a good adventure takes time and the more experienced
you are as a Dungeon Master, the better the adventures
you design are going to be. So I have two points. First, when you're starting
out as a Dungeon Master, your adventures might not be
that good, and that's okay. Just stick with it and work on making each adventure a little bit
better than the last one. And second, if you're not
willing or able to put in the time to create
adventures to begin with, see my first point about preparation, instead of trying to home
brew your adventures, you're better off buying
a pre-made module to run. For instance, you might pick
up Rime of the Frostmaiden or Descent Into Avernus. However, modules require
a lot of commitment. You gotta run the whole thing. It's (stammering) So if you don't wanna run a module, but instead you'd like adventures that you can drag and drop
into an ongoing campaign, my suggestion is to good with DML Patron and get Lair Magazine. Every monthly issue contains two to three easy to use adventures, complete with digital
maps for online play. By the way, I did put
together a playlist for you of my best videos on adventure
creation to help you out. I'll throw a link to that
down on the description and maybe a pin comment or something. Number four, balancing the game. Excellent Dungeon
Masters balance the game, especially the adventures
they create around the three pillars, combat, exploration
and social interactions. They include elements of each
of those things in a game. They do not run lopsided games
that ignore certain pillars. Now, one might criticize broadcasted games for focusing too much
on social interactions. That's the talkie talkie
between characters and NPCs. But we must also recognize that they are running a
show to entertain viewers and many of them are
actors and voice actors. So this shouldn't surprise us. However, we still see the
three pillars in their games. It isn't all just talkie talkie. There is certainly combat
and exploration present. By the way, I have you video titled "The Three Pillars of
a Successful D&D Game" that goes into more detail on this. I'll throw a link down below for you. Look at me. I'm so
generous with these links. Just link, link, link. Go click it. Okay, I need to calm down. Sorry. Number five, customizing
the game for your players. We just talked about balancing the game but a complimentary point
is to balance the game according to your player's preferences. They love combat, give 'em more combat. Do they love social interactions? Add some more. And you know, part of me suspects that one of the reasons we see lots
of social interactions on Critical Role is that
Matt is doing just this, customizing the game for his players. I bet you that the players
really do enjoy acting and talking in character a lot, so this becomes a feature
of Matt's games for them. Another pro tip for you as well, using the character's backs
stories to design elements in your game is something you can do that your players will love. In my D&D campaign creation video I talk about the main
adventure arc for your game, but I also discuss
character adventure arcs, and that's where you can design entire adventures that revolve around elements in character backstories. I strongly suggest doing that when you can as it will make your campaign even more engaging for your players. Caution, not all your players will like the same things, however. So some variety is still often needed and all of one thing, combat for instance, could get old and boring
even if players love it. Now most of the things
we've talked about thus far have had to do with preparing the game outside of the actual game session. See what I mean about
preparation being important? I still gotta calm down. Sorry. How you run the game
during the game session is another basic thing that when done well will elevate your game from others. Now, there are lots of
things a DM does during a game session, but
I'm going to list a few that I consider the most important. Number six, listening
more and talking less. Yes, you need to describe the
world around the characters. Yes, you need to adjudicate actions when the players decide to do a thing. However, you also need to just
shut your mouth sometimes, let the players talk
and just listen to them. The goal is not to put
yourself in the spotlight. Instead, allow everyone
to share the spotlight, players and Dungeon Master. And this is something we
certainly see Matt Mercer doing. He gives his players
room to speak, to act, to actually play the game. We aren't just listening to him
monologue for several hours. Number seven, run Interesting NPCs. A good chunk of the game is the characters talking to the NPCs, either in the dungeon
or adventure locations, in town, on the road or elsewhere. And remember that monsters
and bad guys are NPCs too. So strive to make your NPCs interesting. Sometimes this involves their background or secrets they may have,
but in my experience, 90% of making an NPC
interesting and fun for players is how you portray them during the game. It's the quirky or unique
voice that you give them. It's the body language you demonstrate as you roleplay The NPC. Honestly, this is probably the one thing that Matt Mercer excels
at above all others and it shouldn't surprise us
since his vocation is an actor. I mean, voice actors
are just as much actors as non-voice actors too, by the way. Just act more with their voices
and less with their bodies. Even though if you see them actually in the studio when they're
doing the voice acting and stuff I guarantee you they're very animated and they're using their
bodies as they voice act because that helps you to
do the voice acting stuff. People wonder why I'm always like going like this all the time. I don't know, it helps you talk. It just helps you do your thing. Number eight, run fun combats. Another part of the game
that can easily take up 50% or more of your actual
game time is combats, and if they're good to
take off that much time, they had better be fun. However, combat can
often feel like a chore and become a complete slog, and you definitely don't want that. And I have a whole lot that
I could say on this topic but I've also made several
videos about it too. So I will conveniently
throw a link down below to a short playlist I created for you, improving D&D combat
that you can check out. Number nine, allow all
players to participate. Making sure all players have
the opportunity to participate and dominant players don't hog the action is a fairly basic but super
important role the DM plays. Guess what happens if you as the DM don't quiet down the
loud, talkative players so that everyone can
actually play the game? Chances are the players who
aren't able to participate much might just leave and find other games. Why? Well, I mean because they
showed up to play D&D, but they really aren't able to. It's the DM's job to create
space for them to participate. Sometimes that's as simple as
addressing the quiet players and asking them what they say or do. Other times it means addressing
the talkative players directly and asking them to
give others a chance to speak. Now, if you're a new Dungeon Master or a veteran looking
for fresh perspectives and you're finding my videos helpful, I would love for you to become a DM Lair Patron at the link below. You can support the content
my team and I create for as little as $5 a month, and you'll get tons of
extra Patron bonuses. For instance, every month you'll get a new issue of Lair Magazine. You can vote on videos I make, and I even run D&D games for Patrons. But if you're not able
to support financially, there's no worries at all. Please continue helping yourself to all the free content I make, such as these two videos right here, or all the things I put in the links and the playlists that
I was telling you about, and I hope that you and your players continue to have loads of fun playing D&D
