The Dungeon | Running the Game

Episode 69. It's in the name of the game.

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The Five Room Dungeon

#RunningTheGame #MattColville

[ketchupguns]

Dear Matt,
There are a pair of little boys at my house who now eat, breath, sleep: monsters, character sheets, weapons, dungeons and beholders...half-orc barbarians, teams of fighting giraffes, and poison-clawed Tabaxi thieves – thanks to you, teaching their dad how to DM.

[Calebgoblin]

I jacked up the volume thinking I wasn't hearing the audio at first and then "LOOKS GOOD DOESN'T IT" blew my brains out through my nose

[CritCrab]

"Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good"

Matt dropping pearls of wisdom that apply both in and out of game yet again.

[nualahalpin]

my immediate thought wasn't "oh he put his initials there", my immediate reaction was "he wrote 'egg' in his dungeon? good to know meme culture was around back in the 70s"

[IrontMesdent]

My favorite Trap: A pitfall that is being moved 10 feet forward by an illusory terrain spell. Players jump over the fake hole to end up jumping in the real hole that looks like terrain.

[abefroman]

I ran into Matt in Indianapolis on my way to work during Gen-Con. He was super cool and nice and asked me about my game. It totally made my day. Love this guy.

[DPadGamer]

I'll be DMing my very first proper campaign in a couple of weeks. I'm excited, but nervous. Your videos have been fantastic, keep up the great work Matt

[connor]

It's not even December yet and Colville is already giving us gifts.

[azuraben]

"Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." 15:19 I'm going to save that quote, helps me deal with past depression and perfectionism!

[TheNerdySimulation]

My favorite thing to tell someone when they are first getting into D&D as a GM is, "A more appropriate name for this game would be Structures & Opponents, but that doesn't sell as many books."

[zacharyharwell]

"Don't let the perfect, be the enemy of the good."

As a compulsive perfectionist with anxiety, I feel simultaneously attacked and inspired. Vicious Inspiration?

[bordenfleetwood]

Ah, outlines. I hate them. HATE THEM. And cannot live without them. I use outlines every day, for all of my gaming, writing and crafting. And I hate them all, even as I use them continuously. And the product is so much better for it. Listen to this man when he says build and outline, and play things kinda loosey-goosey, but know the outline.

[Kugo]

My players measure progress by how many NPC's they've killed

[andrewcoutinho]

I've been saying for many, many years that 5 minutes of DM work can last the players 5 hours and 5 hours of DM work can last the players 5 minutes.

[darkdragonsoul]

Gonna be honest I have no idea how I got here I know nothing about dungeons and dragons other then it exists and there are alot of video games that take from it. Yet this was rather interesting.

[specs]

My first time dming, I made everything up on the spot.
It was sort of an accident, I didn’t fully intend to dm like that, I had a plan for a dungeon crawl, but then the players started saying things about how they had goals. So I thought, “let’s go with that”.
We ended up making an entire campaign, that lasted for 6 months, and the players fought and died, loved and lost, in order to find and complete there goals.
At the end of it, they asked me, how did you create such an amazing story? And that’s when I told them, I didn’t. You all did. I just went along with it.
Of course I didn’t give them all that they wanted, they failed, a lot. But it was fun, and entertaining. And it really forced me to be constantly thinking on my toes.
Some how, some way, I made a cohesive story where almost everything fit perfectly. At least that’s what my players say.
But yeah, I don’t recommend dming like this. I had nothing prepared so I constantly had to be making things up on the fly, and flipping to random pages in books for fights and such.
Luckily I’m a nut for puzzles and riddles so I could throw those at them on a whim in order to buy myself some time to think.
All in all though, I’ve never ran a game as fun as that. And I think I’m gonna do another campaign like that again.
Let the players create the world, and I’ll just roll with it.

[eternalwatcher]

"They don't know X isn't as cool as you wished it would be, they're just gonna be exited playing." - that hit my soul HARD.

[CrazyConnor]

It's always a good day when Matt uploads

[StevetheWizard]

That bit about the "Why are we doing this?" can actually be a good idea for character exploration, if it's done in-character.
Paladin: "Why are we doing this, again?"
Sorcerer: "Well, we need to gather the artifacts and destroy them before the other guys can gather them and use them. Apparently, they can only be destroyed when they're all together, which I'm thinking will make it awfully convenient for the bad guys, especially since they know we've got them."
Paladin: "No, I know why we're gathering the artifacts, I'm just wondering why we don't just throw them into a volcano or something for storage instead of walking into an obvious trap. Doesn't matter if they can't be destroyed by being chucked into a volcano, the whole 'being in a volcano' thing would make them impossible to get to."
Cleric: "Uh... they summon Demons if left in one place for too long-"
Warlock: "Last I checked, Demons aren't usually immune to lava. I'm on board with the volcano plan."
Paladin: "Good. Now we just need to find a volcano."
Fighter: "There's only one known volcano on this continent, and it's inhabited by an Ancient Red Dragon. I think going there would be a bad idea."
Paladin: "... Well, then."

[professorgrimm]

"Starting is about 80% of Finishing" ...this right here is important life advice. Getting started often is the hardest thing.