HOW TO PREPARE TO RUN D&D

Hopefully this helps you guys out! Bit of a shorter video...
I just realized the entire video is one big ad... oh well.

[MrIzzy]

Played a one shot last night. It was 12:30 and out DM literally said: "I need to end this soon" then the giant grabs our druid and throws him in its mouth. Druid: "Okay, I transform into a blue whale" giant's head explodes. Campaign done.

[ariebirb]

I had a friend who wanted me to run the campaign but when the whole time he kept judging saying I was breaking the rules and stuff. And I knew it was wrong, but half of the players weren’t there for dnd they were there to play with their friends and since they were having fun and I was having fun I played a bit different especially since it was their first time. He sent me a bunch of your videos as well as the Matt Mercer guides, all of which I had studied beforehand. He obviously has not seen them all considering how you end this one “none of these rules matter as long as everyone is having fun”. I’ll remember that. Thank you(:

[Sapy_picklez]

The intro is just calling me out cuz I have a game to run tonight lol

[deplorablemecoptera]

Don't call yourself a dungeon master if you haven't eaten the DMG

[buttonmasher]

Mama mia! Literally the second I needed it.

[superninja]

2:44 he sat in silence doing random expressions for a solid 25 seconds. imagine some guy breaking into his house and seeing this man doing random crazy confused expressions at a camera

[jefescdo]

Procrastination is awesome

It lets me see how to get ready while not getting ready!

[TheDreamTwist]

In my experience its best to prepare for a beginning and end to a session and have some ideas for what's gonna happen in between but not planned in a chronological order. Overall you will never be prepared for what your players actions.

[oyans.]

Having session zero of my first homebrew campaign tomorrow.

Wish me luck, I need it.

[quimblyjones]

You remind me about 80% of a housemate of mine. Mannerisms, speech patterns and looks...
It's freaking me out dude

[clashmasterthemobilegamer]

2:30 ok, so why is the party fighting a Brass Dragon AND an Aboleth?!?

[lemonade]

Thanks for making this. I'm thinking of making a DnD club at my school next year!

[BardsOnAHill]

FINALLY! I’ve been running the starter set over discord for some friends in another state. This’ll be helpful

[jaredbumblecrum]

I'm dming my first game tommorow and this comes out hahaha send help
Edit: thanks for all the support, you guys!
Edit 2: It went great! Thank you all for the support, I was pretty nervous until I read those.

[GlaurungtheRed]

God the timing on this video, I'm running a session today

[christophercampbell]

Just wanted to say Thank You for being awesome. You are my favorite D&D channel and have helped me from my first time as a player to now starting as a DM and I absolutely love your story videos. Also your class videos are the BEST THING EVER.

[mal]

I legitimately just got my first group ready to play dnd and I need this

Ps: it’s my first time DMing

[IggyTthunders]

Hey! Tech DM here!
A great method to keep online players immersed is screen sharing photoshop and tablet to toggle maps, move personalized tokens of npcs and players, and improvise a battle grid on the fly. You can also nest each map with a texture for cities, dungeons, and the wild. Iiii havent figured out how to add ambient music to a discord live stream yet, but i have a playlist of dungeon and dark synth.

[miylacrystal]

Use click pencils
Have sticky notes
Have page marker sticky notes (come up with some sort of code to tell you what each tab have, unless your hand writing is small enough)
Have a miniature whiteboard if you’re planning to have multiple but small encounters

Don’t be afraid to spend a month writing out lore

(Google world building tips for writers not just DM’s)

HAVE A SESSION 0!
(My very first campaign crashed and burned because I didn’t know that there were so many books and I didn’t know to tell my players to only include things from the basic players handbook) it helps to know your players backstory, it helps to know their stats ahead of time, and it helps to know whether your party is balanced.

Come game time don’t be afraid to tell your players you’re not ready (although you can Google a one shot and have that up and running in like 10 minutes so that they can learn to role-play their characters if they’re new)

Clean your table (there is a very good reason that I will never run a DND campaign at my house)

If you’re planning for a longer session have some food planned, doesn’t matter whether it’s online or in person (except if you’re online you only have to worry about yourself)

Bring some water (or something to keep you hydrated)

If your sessions are going to be capable of running more than eight hours bring some five hour energy, coffee, something that will keep you awake.

Never let a player run a class or a race that you don’t know

I haven’t been a DM for long but I have played out multiple campaigns and talked with my DM on a few occasions about the struggles of making a campaign, in summary make sure you’re prepared for game day

[channie]

The timing of these videos are just scarily accurate... Thanks for this!!!