You need to start your game with a ritual

You know how impossible it can be to start your D&D game, everyone's making small talk, and you've somehow got to immerse these players. Well, you use a ritual! Lights, words, and immersion. It's like casting a spell.

🎬 Created by Daði & Anna Birna ♥

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▼ INDEX ▼
00:00 Intro
01:08 D&D is a cult, actually
02:21 Pavlov your players
03:45 My pre-game ritual
05:41 The immersion on-ramp
08:30 Today's sponsor - dScryb!
09:34 Rituals are for everyone
10:21 Outro

[MKzing]

No Mom, it's not a cult. The runic circle of bones is just for the vibes!

[katiecincotti]

I say "are you ready kids?" and they all say "aye aye captain" and then i go into the session recap. It works surprisingly well while keeping it lighthearted to get them to focus up.

[codexdelux]

"Ok, lets leave this place and return back to reality" has been my opening for a long while now.
there's something about flipping what is real and what is roleplay in that sentence that seem to make players immerse a lot faster.

[uptheironschris]

My last two sessions, I took this approach with the opening dialogue and then prompted the players by asking what are their character’s thinking, etc and what a difference that alone made in the entire session. Looking forward to implementing more of the mystic arts at my game table. Thank you!

[nicholaswahlgren]

My start is usually holding up a d20, rolling it in my fingers, and saying “I’ve got inspiration for whoever does the recap.” I like Matt Colville’s advice to have the players do the recap because it tells me what they are thinking about in terms of the story. If something really important gets missed, I’ll remind the players what that is.

Then the d20 goes into the center of the table as the group’s inspiration. I use a pool of inspiration points that the group can draw on and that expires at the end of the session to encourage its use. Works pretty well for my table.

[CunningSmile]

I started doing this by accident at the 12-16 year olds club I run. Decided to start a session with “the story so far goeth thusly” because I was feeling flowery before doing the last session recap and it actually worked so now I do it every session for every game I run. Always the same phrase followed by a recap and everyone drops everything

[toddfooshee]

Dadi, you and your girlfriend are clearly an exceptional wealth of D&D know-how. Been in prep mode for my first time DMing and creating a homebrew campaign setting, and since launching your channel, each video seems to be coming at just the right moment for me. Thanks for all the great tips.

[IkariTheWraith]

Youtubers and TV shows do the same thing: A familiar jingle or intro phrase to set the standard stage. Even something as simple as "Welcome to Mystic Arts." 😉

[KatrineO-eu]

We always transition from out-of-game banter with a Question Of The Week, adressed to each player about their character. This can be light and silly (is your character a dog or cat person?) or heavier (who in the party does your character currently trust the most?). I've found it gets them into the dnd state of mind pretty well. From there I jump into my opening monologue pretty seamlessly.

[jojobigcoat]

I’m so glad i’m not alone in the intro sequence and opening monologue idea. Once that theme starts, everyone locks in awaiting to in character list everything they can before the track stops. The drool is PALPABLE I love it

[Corga]

This is the best DM channel on YouTube. Period.

No gimmicks.

No "WUTSUPGUYS *Obnoxious Brainrot Effects*

No drama.

No misleading thumbnails.

No bs.

Just straight talk, good advice delivered in an efficient and easy to understand manner. No condescension, no opinionated rants.

You are a godsend to dnd youtube right now.

[ClassicThermite]

Ok I know this is not the ritual you were talking about, but my most successful oneshot started with a ritual gone wrong – players being tied up as serpent folk perform a blood sacrifice ritual around them, only they screw it up and accidentally target themselves... now the players have to work their way backwards out of the deepest part of a dungeon and it was a great time with an shocking opening.

Just wanted to share incase anyone wants to steal it :)

[iscarvalho]

Small things create deep memories. In a campaign I ran a year ago I had a sound on discord ready with the 'quest update' sound effect from The Witcher 3 whenever I started the session. "And that's The Hero's Journal" followed by the sound effect became the start of all sessions. Also it became such a strong memory to me and my players that one day one of the players were playing TW3 and when the quest update effect sounded, he immediately, almost as a reflex, said the 'starting' phrase.

[colinwalbridge]

Somewhat tangential, but I've found it helpful to get my group to pick a name for their adventuring party relatively early on. Then, when it's time to start the session, I can say "So, 'party-name, ' when we last left off..." and it triggers that "someone said my name from across a loud, crowded room" effect and suddenly my group of goofy friends *is* the adventuring group

[Captain_Speakeasy]

*dim the lights*, que the music, not sure if this is a DnD campaign or a date, but I'm hoping for both! 😂 ❤ thanks for the flawless advice

[nimennacnamme]

10:10 "If you do it right and you do it right, you've set the tone …" … to summon a pedantic commenter like me who points out *and* points out that you accidentally said the same thing twice.

[oscargarciahinde]

For us, it's the Baldurs Gate 2 opening theme. When I start playing that on the speaker, everyone needs to STFU.

[rodshop]

Distance, summarize, immerse. Good points. I need to chant these a few times to get the magic flowing before my session this weekend!

[floofzykitty]

My table starts with just a small one before the recap - It's our little superstition known as our "Omen Rolls". We just all roll a D20 and see what we get, and it is up to us to interpret what the dice gods have bestowed us.

[VitoWolf-metq]

It’s nice to think about ritual. I always like to start with the Conan “ let me tell you of the days of high adventure!”