My 10 Rules for D&D

Guidelines for how to make your tabletop RPG experience great.

**

Music by Ender Güney

“Street Guitarist”

Instagram: egmusic16

All music royalty free with attribution and link to artist

[nunyabizness]

"We're nearly gods, but one of our party has died! We should go to the local tavern and recruit the level 1 Bard, " said nobody ever.

[tenken]

I will occasionally fudge a die roll for a level 1 character. Insta-kills less than an hour into a new campaign are no fun.

[shadowmetroid]

I understand not wanting to fudge rolls ever but in my experience sometimes it is a necessary evil, especially when you homebrew a lot of your enemies. Sometimes I realize that I may have thrown my party in too deep, or maybe the monster is a bit much for their current level. So I may fudge a couple rolls so that my party doesnt get completely smoked and die stupidly.

I never use it to screw my players. Fudging dice is to cover my mistakes.

[snakeappletree]

“Burn it, Fight it, Rob it, F*** it.” The Universal D&D Players Rules since 1980-ish. All you need to live by.

[ambrosewetherbee]

I appreciate it when DMs roll dice in the open. I've always found that when the players are privy to the DM's dice rolls(not necessarily the resulting value when bonuses and penalties are factored in), the tension we feel during times when something requires a roll of the die is one of the most enjoyed aspects of the game.


All in all, an excellent list of rules to look to when running D&D. If I speak with any aspiring DMs, I'll definitely point them to this video. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!

[hailcaesar]

I always love playing NPCs as the DM, so much fun just to change your voice and mannerisms to react to PC antics. Great video.

[Battleguild]

I've had a Nettle Blight crit the wizard at level 1 within 20 minutes of the game starting...I put them at 1 damage shy of instant death instead of just outright killing the Wizard. (They were already damaged slightly earlier.)

[wanderinghistorian]

"I don't fudge dice out of pity!"
You make it sound like this is the only scenario in which you'd fudge dice. What if YOU make a mistake? What if you design what you thought would be an easy or medium encounter but it turns out to be super deadly and the monsters steamroll the players? Do you believe yourself incapable of making a mistake? Are you infallible?

I fudge. But the only time I fudge is when I the DM mess up, as described above. I make mistakes, I am only human. They shouldn't pay for that.

[pietromarchionne]

About the 9th rule at my group's table we always follows this rule: if you die, you came 1 level lower as you was when the group begin to cast resurrection like spells the rule change and you came back 2 level lower. so you could be helpful to the group but still have a bit to pay for the death of your previous character. (Sorry if i make some English mistake)

[candidk]

Its been a long time since I've DM'd and have been thinking of getting back in to it. Your list was a great reminder of what we need to think about, thanks!

The one that stood out for me was the 'fit' of your group. It may be difficult to put together and it may take time, but in my experience I can't stress how important that is for the sanity and enjoyment of the evening.

[thecarterbrothers]

Were pretty new to your channell esper mate, really enjoying your unique style, and honesty in this vid ! god bless ya

[blakebailey]

What are your thoughts on DMs barring certain races or archetypes to maintain a specific theme or tone?

[MadaZitro]

Great video and I'm happy to find another DND channel. I'm currently running new players with experienced ones through LMoP and it's growing into something great. This helps them.

[AmigoRoberto]

I've really grown to enjoy dm'ing in the open. my players have responded well to the screenless play. And I feel more like a player

[coco]

I'm actually playing through a campaign where you always start at level 1 and it makes death all the more terrifying and make survival all the more fulfilling and fortunately you usually regain Xp back as a expedient rate due to the fact that the party is fighting more powerful monster like a player died in our campaign and got back to level 3 in two sessions and was at level 5 by session 5 (the highest leveled player is level 6) so its not nearly as devastating as it initially seems but it does hurt alot.

[raptorjesues]

i mostly agree but i found #8 pretty wrong. The objective is having fun, istakills are not

[darkagesvampire]

My favorite is the part to never fudget a die roll, just roll the dice in front of everyone. Knowing that also fate is part of the game makes the players feel more immersive when playing the game. Rolling dice behind the DM screen makes the players feel like the DM is controling everything including the fate of the game.

[DungeonMasterJohnny]

This reminds me of your videos from 2009, love it . Even the pic with the map at the end. Great work man

[jotver]

You make some great points in #5. I would really like you to go into more detail about those problems. I am good at making rule calls and keeping combat flowing but I do feel my games tend to focus more on combat to its determent. What i would like to see is you going into more detail now how to address each of those problems. Great Video!

[edwarddavis]

I disagree with not fudging. Just never let them know if you did. And dont take back what you say