Warmup from Tanner to Justin:

If you could make a character for an uninterested player, what would it be?

Intro:

Welcome back, adventurer! We’re excited for another episode of How to Be a Better DM!

Together, you and I will learn how to craft better stories for yourself and your players as you DM sessions of Dungeons and Dragons 5e, no matter your level of experience. Today I’m your host Tanner Weyland, with my compatriot, Justin Lewis. 

With the references to D&D in popular shows like Stranger Things and even a Dungeons and Dragons movie coming out, the hobby has seen a large growth in new players and will likely see even more newbies join the game. This means that there will be both new DM’s and new players who need help and need to be shepherded into the world of D&D. It’s our job to make sure that happens in a way that encourages them to stay and today we’re going to talk about just that!

Before we get into today’s main topic though, let’s go through some housekeeping items! 

We’ve finally finalized the date of the next one-shot. It will be held online on Saturday, September 17th around 2 PM Mountain Time. So far we have all 5 players signed up. For those four players, we’ll be sending out a calendar invite to make sure they have the date settled. Next, just another shoutout to our show listener Robric Vanhelm. If you want to get his professionally made encounter in The League of Libraries: The Lorecroft Collection then go to betterdungeonmaster.com/robric and purchase it. All proceeds go to Robric who’s made some amazing stuff.

Well, I think that is enough jibber jabber so let’s get to the meat of today’s conversation. D&D tips for beginners.

Main Topic: D&D Tips for Beginners

Justin

1. Talk with your players/DM

This tip goes both ways for new DM’s and new players. For the new DM: You need to ask your players lots of questions about what they would add to your game or what hasn’t really worked for them as well as tell them that they can freely talk to you and ask you questions. If you need info about a player’s backstory, ask them without delay. If you want your players offering you info about their backstory, tell them nothing would make you happier. Ironically, for such a “nerdy” game this game teaches a lot about relationships. In order to have a successful campaign, you absolutely need constant and consistent communication from all parties involved. If nothing else, you need that just to keep the game consistently scheduled.

1. Encourage players to unlimit themselves

Sometimes new players might look to the DM and think, “What is it they want me to do here?” If that is how you play as a DM, I suggest you rethink your style. I know my wife has said that to me in the recent past during our game and I took that as a personal failure. You want your players to think outside the box and treat the scenarios as real world scenarios where there are infinite options. The mechanics of the game are there to be just that, mechanics, processes that explain how consequences come about. If they want to try something, they can. It’s my job as the DM to think about how logically difficult (or perhaps impossible) that thing is and then let them try anyway. 

So tell your players to let themselves imagine grand things and then try them out.

1. You get out what you put in

Tanner

1. Take ownership of the lore and content.

As a new player, it may be easy to just arrive at the sessions and “tag along.” Instead, take ownership. Get some materials, whether you download or buy them. Also, know your own character’s backstory in a deep way. Study a little bit of your class’ mechanics every week. You might even want to study some of the deeper lore–that is when you can feel like a contributor, not a sidekick.

1. Embrace Collaboration with both the players and DM

This is in a similar vein to my other tip, but it is a practical tip for creativity: your best ideas will come when you try to create them in collaboration with the DM or other players.

Break (From Tanner to Justin)

Main Topic Continued:

Tanner

1. Try DMing.

Justin

1. It’s ok to stop

This is a tip to relay to your new players. You need to let them know that this is a new thing they are trying. If they don’t like it they don’t have to keep playing just to make you happy. In fact, you should go one step further and tell them how exactly you want them to pull you aside when no one else is around and simply explain that you had some fun but D&D just isn’t their vibe, or their kids need more attention, or they have different priorities or anything else. What’s not ok is for players to constantly lead everyone on or force everyone to change their schedule because they don’t have the spine to say, “No thanks.” D&D is not for everyone. We welcome everyone and invite everyone, however who stays is entirely up to them. I’ll tell you this though, we will make some amazing memories with whoever stays.

1. Describe Your Own Combat

Mentioned in this episode:

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Level Up Guide

yeah take as long as you need

uh

okay so this is outdated because it says four players have signed up it should

be five

yes

okay

it should

cool

be five so we can actually i guess change that

yeah

oh

remind me just

yeah yeah yeah

just opening up because i want to reference

m oh

yeah

yeah

what

oh

were the what was the other podcast this dungeon is occupied it

yeah yeah the this dungeon

yeah

is occupied

okay perfect should i just start

yeah

eh do we do like welcome to the tavern or whatever

i'll be honest like we don't really mention the tavern that much so

i

i'd

know

be interested to see if like people put it together

oh

maybe the next time i reach out to someone i'll ask that question but

yeah are you

i

going

wouldn't

to

phil

put it in the background

yeah

like the tavern

yeah like i

ye

always put it in the background

cool

another

m

reason is just

yeah

because it kind of it covers up any

yeah

other like random noises like for example

m

do you hear like my chair like squeaking at all

slightly

ah

it's not enough very much though

that's amazing

yah

i have to say but m yeah if there's ere'somethinglike that the tavern noise kind

of

yah

covers that

oh

clandestinely you know

perfect

oh

okay i'll get started then

oh

hello and welcome back adventurer we're

oh

excited to have you on another

my

episode of how to be a better d m to get started i've got a

warm up for you and you're ready

all right yeah

perfect

let's do it

okay let's say that you have to make a character for an uninterested

yeah

player right like a friend of

ah

yours who isn't you know he's doing it or she

oh

is doing it because you know they're you know they're willing to go along with

it but they're not all that excited what kind of character would you make for

that uninterested player

that is such a good question and i actually have a specific friend in mind

one that i've asked hey do you want to play d n d some time

and he's like honestly man that just seems like a long meeting and so definitely

have him in mind now with this i would say you have to make it

kind of to fit the player so you do have to know the player a

little bit but going somewhat

hm

general i would make a character that is somewhat simple so not too many extra

attacks not too many spells i would either

oh

go with a warlock which is nice magic user you still get to use the

magic but it's not as complicated as a sorcerer cleric

h m

wizard m i think it would also be very interesting to

oh

do a let's see yeah i think i would do like a celestial warlock so

someone who should be really really good but has this packet and i would probably

make their character lust for power but kind of fight against that lust so you

know same way someone who is pre predisposed to be an alcoholic this person is

predisposed to seek after power yet have this celestial angelic heritage and i would probably

in this in this world i would probably make it so they actually have you

know in certain cases in certain world celestial actually have kind of a connection to

an angel that guides them and tells them what to do you know some people

you know in our modern ver vernacular you might call it like the holy spirit

of the ghost or the holy ghost if you're a christian i would probably have

them have something like this and give their benefactor a name and so their benefactor

and their patrons are kind of always at odds trying to get them to do

different things you know of the scene with emperors new grove with cronk and the

shoulder angels

hm

you know that that would kind of be the epitome but again i would try

and make it simple but also somewhat flashy so they're like wow i can do

cool things like when i level up i can summon like a demon which has

nuts but also

h

if i want to i can just

m

shoot an eldrich blast a couple times and be done with yeah

that's great i love that especially i like that there was depth to the role

playing

yeah

because if they're uninterested it's probably because they just are picturing a bunch of words

being like oh hey i

hm

roll to hit you with my mighty sword you know instead

yes

it's nice because you're like hey you got a little crank like angel

exactly

devil like shoulder angels you know andilio

yeah and

i like that

if i could add it i think one important thing about having those the patron

oh

and the benefactor is

oh

it allows me as the d m to kind of put in my two sense

to the character to the player

ay

on some things that they should do or can do so that way they're not

solely responsible for all the choices that they have to make like they don't have

to think of everything but instead as a d m i can somewhat whisper hey

this person needs help or hey you should steal person's knife or something like that

and i'm interested to think like i would maybe make it so the voices for

the benefactor and the patron are basically unlike you can't distinguish between so you don't

always know whether you're following you know satan or the angel or the devil if

that makes sense

yeah i like that too

oh

because it kind of keeps them on their toes which is another

hm

way to keep people interested

m

right suspense

exactly

or you know in decision both of those are great it's to

hm

do it versus someone who's just watching all the other players kind of do there

their thing right

exactly

yeah great

ah

love that good warm up i think you crushed it

uh

um

h thank you

okay so today we're actually going to be talking

yeah

a lot about not uninterested players but beginner players who oftentimes can

oh

be uninterested but first we're going to get into some announcements

oh

um so first off to introduce myself it's been a sex i'm tanner wayland and

oh

i'm here with my compatriot my friend justin lewis

either

he waved you didn't see it

oh

i'm so sorry

yeah

um so today

ye

like always we're going to be learning about how to craft better stories for yourself

and your players

ye

as you d m sessions of dungeons and dragons five e

yeah

h so as you all know d and d is very popular nowadays stranger things

obviously kind of led to rereseargence and then of course people even before then were

starting to get into it more because being being inured wasn't wasn't a bad thing

uh but because of that we're going

h

to have a lot of

m

new

ah

players um and that's why we felt like today's topic was so important

oh

but as it's a couple of housekeeping items before we get into that

m

so first

yeah

off we've got our one shot coming up it's saturday

yeah

september

okay

seventeenth two pm mountain top we're going to be sending

ah

out an email we actually have all five players signed up already so for those

who were

ah

late or didn't make it definitely we'll have you on the list for

m

the next one we're actually hoping to collaborate with some some

yeah

wonderful people that we've done podcast with

oh

some of the guests we've had so we're going to keep that a secret though

yeah

who but we have some we have some

m

fun plans

m oh

um but yeah so we're going to be sending out calendar invite to each of

those five players make sure the dates all set and then also send them all

the other into they need next we just want to give a shout out to

one of our to a listener roberick van helm he's awesome rob is great

oh

he's actually kind of shown us this encounter that he wrote designed like professionally

oh

it's called the league of libraries though or croft collection now if any of you

are

yeah

kind of getting into d and d or if you're you know what sometimes i

get a little tired or burnt out of making one shots you know you're kind

of in that place where you just want to see what other people have made

rob's

oh

he knocked it out of the park so we actually are going

yeah

to have the the link in the show now so that you

ah

can go there but if you don't look at that it's at better dungeon master

dot com

ye

ford slash rob rick r o b r i c go there just all

yeah

the proceeds go to rob and i think

oh

you'll really enjoy it but well first

i

off anything else anything else justin yeah

um no m again rob is awesome he makes awesome stuff on dungeon master

oh

dam guild come and uh yeah i for one am super excited to hear the

one shot in september and for those of you who are interested

m

we will be coming out probably with a link for you to act all watch

the one shot just just in case you didn't get a chance to send up

you'll be able to watch it and kind of participate that way so keep an

eye out for that

perfect so yeah let's let's get on to the meat

yah

tasty meat of the conversation

h

which is dem tips

m

for beginners

ah

um

oh

now justin

yeah

why don't you start us out

yes sure so first thing i want to say is these tips are for both

new players and new dims helping new players and so the first one i would

say

yah

is

yah oh

talk

yeah

with your players slash d m if you're a new player if you're a new

d m you need to open up those halls of communication and you need as

the d m the new d m you need to ask your players lots and

lots of questions specifically about what they would add to your game or what really

hasn't worked for them as well you know them understand that they can freely talk

to you and ask you questions as well you know if you need player if

you need inflow about our players back story ask them

m

immediately hopefully in some sort of private setting so you don't tip off other players

but if you want your players also offering you in fo bout their back story

tell them that nothing would make you happier help them understand that they need to

be talking to you as much as they can want and it's kind of ironic

actually for such a quote unquote norty game the game teaches a lot about relationships

you know in order to have a successful campaign you absolutely need constant and consistent

mmunication from all parties involved you know if nothing else you need that just to

even

m

keep the game scheduled right

absolutely i think that the great thing about d and d as always is

yeah

it's it's you

oh

essentially playing together with your friends you know talking is like

m

so central to that that's what's great about it as opposed to

hm

a lot of video games board games

oh

i mean a lot of those you can do that as well but you

oh

literally can't do d and d without it

yeh

and so you know if you're new

hm

h d m new player

yes

just embrace that just be like hey you know those conversations that we like having

we're

yeah

going to have a lot of conversations and it's going to be about you know

about the game it's going to be about other stuff you just need to

oh

really embrace that and kind

oh

of to to the point that you know

m

some people might you know they might be introverts but

oh

you know you can help them feel like it's a safe space for them to

you know

hm

talk in by by including them by seeing what their opinion is you know not

talking over them but like especially

m

if they're a new player you know make sure that if they start talking you

listen and you treat it treat it trying to say treat respectfully treat them like

an equal yeah

no you're you're completely right like h and i don't have kids but i'd imagine

it's just like with kids if you know you're you're kids when they're younger they

come to you and they show you these things that are super important to them

but you don't really care when they're older and they have important things are they're

going to come to you not really it's the same thing with being a dungeon

master if you don't you know take even the minorist question seriously especially if someone's

knew than when they have bigger questions they're not really gonna you know feel comfortable

asking

totally

you

um and so so a tip that i'd like to talk about and this one

honestly is more

yes

directed to players specifically

yeah

like new players

oh

it's you know as a new

hm

player it's going to be easy to arrive at a session and feel like you're

kind of just tag tagging along you know like oh everybody else especially the d

m has their

yeah

iss to there and there you know they know how to play the game they've

got these character back stories that they're super

yeah

invested in and you're going to feel maybe like you're just

oh

like a ride along side kick instead

i

learn how to take ownership

hm

and now what does that look

ye

like i find that ownership means a few things one you're going to get some

material now

yeah

i'm not saying that you have to shell out the money

yeah

and buy all the books but maybe you buy one or maybe you go online

oh

and read through the website

hm

for example maybe like for your class for your first character you're going to be

studying every

yeah

week just a little bit about that character and some of the law and maybe

some of the abilities that they can do right because if you wait for just

during the session

yeah

you're going to feel a little bit out of out of your depth ah and

that's not what we want you know players feeling because because it should be a

fun environment first and one of the ways you can have real fun is taking

that

ah

taking that step and just being like you know what i did my studying on

my own i learned about the background of the campaign

m

or i solidified some of the background of my character so i can play them

better right whatever it is if you take ownership

yeah

and you're like learning about it

ah

even in your off time so to say so to speak then you're going to

feel more part of the game you know

i agree and i think that is a really good point because you know for

some of these new players you know sitting at a table with experienced quote unquote

norty players can maybe feel intimid ting when they have these tricked out characters with

deep back stories you know you don't feel like you belong um as a dungeon

master it's your it's your opportunity to help a player and say hey maybe you

don't feel like you'd be long because you haven't read these things or you haven't

thought about your character back story and we can do that together and actually you

know going on that note i would say my second tip is in those conversations

when maybe your player is having those doubts or something try and help them unlimit

themselves you know sometimes new players might look to the d m and think or

say what is it they want me to do here and if that is how

you play as a d m i suggest you you know you re think your

style in fact

yeah

i know my wife has literally said that to me in the recent past during

our game and i took that as a personal failure because you know at no

point do i want her thinking that i am the game instead i'm kind of

just the arbiter of the game making it so they are the game you know

and and you want your players to think outside the box and treat the scenarios

as real world scenarios in my opinion where there are infinite options you know they

don't always have to the monster they can find another way out and and the

mechanics of the game are in my opinion there just to be that mechanics processes

that explain how consequences come about and you know it's a fine line but if

they want to try something they can and it's my job as a d m

to just think about how logically difficult are perhaps impossible that thing is and then

let them try anyways you know so tell your players to let themselves imagine grand

things and then try them out and kind of process evelimen or process of failure

or success learn how to do things

yeah and

in

we've

dad

even

i guess

talked about this before right where we talked about making failure you know not such

a hard wall that players just are like orat well i guess the d m

doesn't want me

hm

do that you know instead

oh

it's like hey let the player truly

uh

live so to speak

h

and do

o

whatever they want to um if it's something

oh

that's a little

yeah

you know a little

oh

tasteless a little bit you know

oh

they're dreaming so then it's like hey let them have consequences or let them succeed

right

and it suddenly the game gets turned on its head and that's fun too right

uh like if they succeed according to the rules

yeah

and then other times if they fail according to the mechanics and the rules you

can you can kind of soften that failure you can be like hey obviously you

were kind of ord mer player with like how the story was going

oh

uh therefore i'm going to take this failure

yeah

and i'm not just going to be like hey get back on track instead i'm

gonna be lie you know what let's change the in up a little bit your

failure has

hm

led to a different avenue a path that you can go different from what you

thought and different from what i thought but hopefully interesting right m but

agreed agreed

one thing that you know i think we talk a lot about inddndabout like deming

almost feels more like reacting you know to another player's choice and it is but

i think that

m

many times the best

oh

the best content the best moments happen when there's collaboration

kay

so this applies to whether a d m or a player if you're a player

you can really collaborate in so many things right even though

ye

you're not creating the world around you you can collaborate in your player's back story

you can be like hey other player friend of mine how about

oh

we you know our players are characters are related in a certain way right

yeah

in between sessions you could even talk and be like

h

hey

m

i think it'd be super funny or cool if both of our people were like

like shooting for this

oh

you know on the other hand you can so collaborate with

yeah

the d m for wonderful results right that's how most the like most players whose

player back stories get interwoven

oh

into a

yah

into a story in an effective way it's because they're talking with the dim outside

of it they're being like hey i wrote this scene this flash back this

i

this mintage for what i want

yeah

my player to go through in order to explain this mechanical change that's happening or

whatever right and if they do that then i think the other players get a

kick out of it you

hm

get a kick out of it as a d m or a player because

ah

you've put in the work you know you've taken time to not just do it

off the cuff but to actually prepare it and i think it just makes for

a more rich

oh

story in general

oh yeah and i actually have two examples of this so you know in the

last few weeks examples of d m m is the d m kind of reaching

out for collaboration with the player and then me i m asking the player for

some collaboration so long story short in one of my sessions three of our characters

hm

were petrified right which is kind of nuts but one of those was a a

a female named

m

row who has been looking for her long lost brother and she's kind of a

shadyish character you know and she one of the petrified characters and when the player

was like you know i need to make my new character i was like hey

i have a suggestion if you're up for it and she's like shoot and i

said how about you play your other character s long lost brother who has actually

been searching for her and then the other two characters are also part of your

kind of criminal crew as it were on you you know you kind of encounter

each

hm

other and you're also share in my my wife who actually is the player she

she really enjoyed that and after she played it she's like wow it's really interesting

playing a differe character because i was rude for so long now i'm ransom and

i'm having to like play differently and that was just one example where i made

a suggestion and then she ran with it kind of on the flip side in

the last session we had one of our characters his name is jerry he's a

paladin dragon born and he was actually found in the under dark and then brought

with the companions to the surface and so for then he had lost his other

adventuring companions and for the first time in the in the campaign he sent a

sending you know he messaged

h m

one of them and he's like i would like to message my old

oh

party and me as the d m i was like oh crab i don't know

what to do here so i said okay what is the name of the person

yet

you are reaching out to and he said mira and i was like that's something

i've never heard so i said what do you

m

say and then he said you know

oh

he said his message of like hey i haven't thought about you guys i wonder

where you were and then i responded

m

i said wow it's been so long ah and then we kind of collaborated a

little bit more because he was like how is everyone

m

and i was like well what are the names of all the people

oh

that were in the group and he gave that to me and

oh

then i gave him a little tit bit saying hey there actually

oh

in the astral cat uh and it

yeah

was kind of this really cool moment of this character because

oh

this character was essentially

hm

a replacement for another character that died and we haven't had a chance to the

back story for it but in you know a small moment we have essentially without

even needing to build a back story for

oh

this

yeah

character because he's lost his memory but now he knows that his old friends are

in trouble and so that's kind of another plot hook that we can pursue and

it was you know player d m collaboration and he provided the details i just

said this is the problem that are in and now it's percolating in his mind

so just a couple of examples of

that's

d

great

m

yeah

player collaboration

especially like how you know us a d m

oh

it like collaboration isn't

yeah

always like hey let's

oh

both sit down and come over with an idea a lot of times it's one

of

oh

you pitching an idea the other one

h

yes ending

m

them

yeah

right um

yeah

and then taking it and not like

exactly

letting them be like not letting them have to do everything on their

yeah

own right so if someone's

m

like hey i have this idea it's

hm

not fully fleshed out then give them a leg up

yeah

like hey i love where that's going

m oh

here's my ideas on top of that and you can do that in game you

can do

yeah

outside um either way i think

yeah

you're going to feel a lot

oh

of pressure off your back and have better story if you do just kind of

acknowledge and try to um make collaboration a much

yeah

more active part of your story telling

oh oh yeah exactly exactly and and then the last tip i'm going to give

before we go to a quick break is as a d m encourage your players

and tell them that they're going to get what sorry they're going to get out

they put in and

oh

this is kind of from the movies

ah

as it were

oh

and we don't realize this but when we watch movies we essentially give the screen

or or the the story permission to bring us into the world we volunteer ourselves

and you can tell when it's a bad movie you don't actually give that volunteering

you don't you don't give that permission to kind of steel you away and you

reserve yourself in the real world as it were but as a d m you

know this you know that the more you put in

oh

the more you're on get out so to your players try and encourage them and

say i know it's going to feel awkward i know you're going to feel weird

and

yeah

silly and you're gonna look around and you're not

oh

going to think everyone else is doing the same thing you're gonna think wow everyone's

looking at being all weird but encourage your players

ah

and say the more you give permission to the game to embrace you and poly

you in the more fun you're going to have an honest that's one of the

biggest tips i could say for you

perfect

to pass along

i love

to your

it

new players oh

so before we continue do you want to you want a short break justin

yeah let's go back to um

ye

so if you have like a conti ation of the earlier

okay

prompt for the warm up

perfect

uh let's use that as the break like take

okay

that character and then something else you know oh

okay

yeah

no

and if you need like

no it's

we

okay

can pause for a second

okay

and let

perfect

you think or what not

so before we continue

yah

and get to the end of this topic that we're discussing i've got

yah

a continuation of the warm up that we had before you ready justin

oh

okay perfect so i really loved

yes

the idea of of the celestial warlock that you created for this player

oh

for this uninterested player especially with the kind

yeah

of shoulder angel vibe

my

going on

i

okay so as a continuation

uh

of that what would you

ye oh

what would be one what is it

yeah

conundrum difficult choice that

oh

you would pose for that player that you think would be very interesting

m

for them

m

sure uh so uh first of all i would probably name the character clos and

in this instance clowes would

oh

probably be um

yeah

m let's see ah it would probably be someone

m

of power is in trouble someone who clos can actually take advantage of or like

their death would ben it's cloes so maybe it's a

oh

uh we'll say it's a constable or something that has evidence that clos did something

wrong and they are in trouble

ah

they are you know classic example would be like hanging from a ledge and they

are there and they have the voices in their heads saying let them fall and

die and your your scott free or save them

m

and show that you are better than this and i think that would be a

really interestin then because i think if the player has understood the character then it

should make them think about what does this character actually want and you know what

they choose will i think be really telling about what the player is hoping to

get from the character experience so if they let the person fall then they're probably

going to go for you know more power and it will be a lot easier

to tempt them with such things and in the voice of the benefactor will get

less and less but on the on the flip side the patron might have some

issue with that and they might get if their

okay

power is taken

follow

away and they're

up because

going

i

to

had

be consequences

a thought so

in that regard you

i

know

think it would be very tempting for certain

ah

d ms to you know let's say

yes

that the c lois lets this constable with the evidence fall

yeah

and now clos actually has a real chance to increase their

hm

power would you

oh

penalize the the

yeah

character immediately

yes

or would you kind of let them ride high on their

a

power for this moment

yeah

and then later on with a separate issue kind of let them see the karma

for their actions like would you defer that or immediate yeah

yeah

yeah

yeah h that's a good question so the like the story writer inside of me

wants to actually make it so the constable doesn't actually die so like they just

get hurt really badly they should have died but it just wasn't far enough or

whatever it was and so i think it would probably be later it comes back

to bite them in the butt and essentially show them like hey you thought you

were on top you actually should have just

m

killed him rather than just letting him fall or you should have helped him because

now he's back and he knows that it was you and and so forth the

other option would be to have people see in that area that you know they

let them fall and i see that's a really good question because i think you

know there are there are good ideas on both sides like on the one you

could show that or you know to make it even more interesting they're trying to

help him and as they're trying to help him he falls anyways and people see

and you know it becomes like they get worst of both sides you know there's

all sorts of things you could do as a d m and i think it

really depends on what your goal is next with the character i think the most

interesting thing to do with this would be to allow them to have that kind

of power and the freedom and then have it slowly kind of and close in

upon them

yeah

as

that's

they realize

i love that and and the

i don't

reason

think

i

he's

pitched

dead

it because

you know

i had the same

yeah

as you were as you were introducing the scenario

oh

you were presenting i had the same thought i was like honestly if

yeah

you let him a ride high in his power for a while

h

and then let it kind of be a slow burn

yeah

like

yeah

thing that comes back to haunt

ah

him

yeah

that's great or if

oh

it is a media and it's like oh my goodness he thought he'd get all

this power

m

but instead

hm

like three towns folk saw him and they're all running away and he there has

to

oh

kill them as well and kind of deep in his hole

yeah

or he gets caught you know like i think that that's

a

that's awesome

right

good good job m

yeah i think it would also be i think it would also be interesting to

kind of put him in the same situation again

ah

but a long time down the

yeah

road and see what he does again you know like does he make the same

decision or does he try the opposite you know maybe not exactly the same but

kind of like it should be visually similar so it kind of calls to memory

in the player's mind like oh wait i was here before but i let this

person die you know and i think that would be

yeah

really

i love

interesting

that i think that

to do as well

it

but

also

maybe

allows

a little bit more difficult

ou as the dam to you know voicing the shoulder angel and devil

oh

to essentially like you similar lines

h

and that would really help the player kind

m

of like be like oh my goodness this is happening again right a great love

it

right

but anyway

right

thank you for you know that great warm up

yeah

let's continue to talking about tips

yeah

for players there players and d ms that are new to d and d how

about let's have you start

yeah

yeah so the next tip i would say is one you need to relate to

your new players and this is one that specific it would be better to do

in a private place and it's that you need to let them know that it's

a new thing done a new thing that they're trying and it's okay if they

don't like it it's okay if they want to stop uh and they don't have

to keep playing just to make you happy in fact what i think is you

should go one step further and say if this happens where you find yourself not

interested in the game as much or just not having as much fun as you

want just come to me i promise you i won't get mad pull me aside

when no one else is around and just simply explain that you know you had

some fun at dandy but it's just not your five or you know your kids

need your attention or you have different priorities really anything else just just explain to

them how you want that process to go about and say it's perfectly fine and

explain to them also that what's not okay is for players to constantly led

oh

everyone else on and also forced everyone to change their schedule because they don't have

the spine to actually say no thank you you know dad is not for everyone

we welcome everyone and we invite everyone however who stays is entirely up them but

i'll tell you this though we're going to have some amazing memories with whoever stays

yeah

and we will

exactly

harbor no

and

ill

this

will

is

to

actually

anyone who

such

doesn't

a huge

i'll

piece

just say

of

that

advice um you know for people like me i

yes

kind of i enjoy having a lot of different experiences especially friends and

thank

i will inconvenience myself

yeah

because i'm like oh but i like this you know uh

yeah

despite the fact that honestly

oh

being without it would probably be a load off my know weight

hm

off shoulders um and so kind of getting ahead of that like you said and

telling them

sure

like hay if this

oh

happens that's okay um and for the d m in that situe ation well first

off d m s you can also do this if you're getting burnt out realize

that

yeah

you can be like hey guys well well actually i have an example

yeah

a cousin of mine was finishing a game i think i've shared this before

yeah

but school was starting up again

oh

he knew that it was going to get super busy in college

oh

and so we got to this boss

okay

to all of us we didn't know how long he had planned on doing this

campaign

oh

we got to this boss and we were like oh the rest

oh

of us were thinking internally this must be the last

yeah

boss and we're fighting it and then the boss kills us all and the

oh

and the

um

my cousin

m m

was like hey so

uh

this is the last

uh

session i'm going to

yah

be deming because all this other stuff

yah

it was just so funny because if we had had that kind of conversation like

you had said like being like hey it's okay to end he probably could have

just let us win and we like

hm

did you realize that we didn't know

yeah

that you had this whole other stuff planned you could have just

yeah

had this giant tentacle like

u

a sea monster god that year

h

they

oh

wiped us out we could have you could have let us win

ah

even if it was hard

oh

and just that could have been the end of the campaign you know

hm

and he was like oh yeah i just thought it was so funny because

h

because

m

he was like the

oh

only way to stop this is to kill them all because the idea of almost

like ending the campaign was

yeah

like that's not on the table apparently

ah

you know unless they all die and it's a t p q

yeah

but yeah i just thought it was so funny

right

and so i think that having

m

steps or having that conversation about when to stop or how to let some player

leave it's so

m

important especially because if you if it's only one player who wants to leave

yeah

i think there's some d

oh

ms out there and you've probably met some justin who would be who would kind

of pressure the player like honestly without you i don't know if we can keep

going

h

you know

m

and the fact is i'm going to say right now like that you can find

yeah

someone else you know it is a little nerve racking to reach out to other

you know friends

yeah

spouses

yeah

family members and ask can be like hey i've got this game want to come

in to some people you probably

m

maybe don't know you know i think people are a lot more willing if you

just ask you know we make it a huge issue when it doesn't need to

be so let people go if they want to go

yeah

and then you know realize

ye

that there's you know more fish in the sea for you

oh

to ask to come in your game right

yes

yeah but great great

hundred

advice

percent

love

hundred

it

percent

now for

yeah

if you're on the opposite end and you're

yeah

not the kind of person who's getting a little burnt out

ye

or thinks you might be say you're the kind of new player who's really just

you know driving you've made a couple

oh

of characters or maybe even

oh

just one you know i think some players they have this barrier between them and

being a d m where they're like oh i'm just not skilled enough or the

game that i would come up with just isn't you know it's not going to

be cool enough

h

and

m

i think that's hogwash you know

oh

it's just it's not true you can you can

oh

any level of skill

hm

you can try and be a d m right that's what this whole podcast is

essentially about sometimes

oh

people have just been barely starting

yeah

to play d and d sometimes they've

oh

been playing for years

oh

you can always get better and so if that's the case

ah

then you know

oh

why not start playing early as a d m and writing your own campaigns because

it's like hey there's other people who probably have been playing a lot longer who

aren't that

ah

much more skilled

yeah

than you because you know because

yeah

it all depends on how how you develop yourself

oh

so yeah that's kind of my my advice there is try deming

oh

do it you can ask people for help but

yeah oh

if you want to do it don't put it off just because you think it's

yeah

outside of your capabilities

i agreed and i just add that by trying deming it will make you a

better player and it will make it more fun for everyone else at the table

when you play and also your d ms will love you more because you'll understand

them and you'll appreciate what they do which is as a dungeon master important the

last tip i would give to you dungeon masters to pass on to your players

it encourages them to describe their own content uh it's one of the ways that

each person can make themselves feel cool and if they struggle with it tell them

no worries i will fill in the blank when you struggle and i'll help you

and proud you along so that we you can eventually create these awesome scenes of

your character doing really awesome stuff and in doing that i would help them understand

that it doesn't have to be you know you roll the dice and you hit

once it can be more narrative and say you trade blows left and right and

eventually you slide their sword up just a little bit so that way you can

their outer arm and draw a little bit of blood with two points of damage

or something like that but help them you know embellish on their own and this

will actually save you some time and enter an effort so that way you don't

have to describe every person's combat and it is a fine line and it does

take to it does take some find tuning but i think that definitely goes a

long way to helping each person as tanner always say you know the goal is

to make each person at least once during

yeah

the night feel

exactly

awesome

and

and describing

and

your

i

own combat i

honestly

think is a great

wouldn't

way

stop

to start

even

down

just

that

with

road

combat i would say skill checks as well because i think that that's

oh

overlooked because d they're like oh

oh

like i have to tell

hm

them that they succeeded

oh

and so i might as well just go the next step and be like okay

you unlock the door but instead you could say okay

hm

you passed it you unlock the door what does that

h

look like

m yeah

you know and you could and then that gives them a chance to be like

okay i get down i look around put my you know my what other thing

lock picks into the door i was going to say tooth picks and i was

like that's not right

ye yeah lock pick yeah

of my gentis new character idea dentist

well depends

turned

on who

thief

you know it depends on your character i guess

but anyway but yeah

oh

but amazing love it but

the tooth fairy

yeah i just think that if you

yah

take any opportunity and if you as

h

a d m

that's

aren't

great

very imaginative here's the great news like like i just said right there

m m

the way to kind of people in to give them the chance to explain is

just

okay

to be like okay you hit what does that look like um your spell was

successful

oh

what does that look like

oh

okay you check was successful was a look like it's a very

hm

simple phrase but it gives them all

oh

the leeway in the world to do essentially whatever

a

they want right

oh

a hundred per cent a hundred per cent so there you have it those are

some of our tips on well some of our d and tips for beginners both

beginner

stop

players

it you're

and

so

in our

nice

dungeon masters uh thank you tanner for being such a great host today

thanks justin yes and so

yeah

our

you

dear

did great

players now just

do you want to finish up with the conclusion

joking honestly we are very grateful that

uh

you were listening today hope that if you're

i love

a new

it

player or even if you're experienced

oh

player or d m

yeah

m these tips have kind of refreshed some of the simple ways that you can

make your your game better story telling better

oh

um as we mentioned before

oh

if you want to reach out to us obviously we're going

oh

to have our website and email in the show notes but in the meantime we

hope that

oh

you have a wonderful time adventuring

oh

and everybody get ready and roll initiative