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@lyingcat9022

3 жыл бұрын

Went and checked out dScryb... but they are extremely pricey for what you get :( There are many other D&D sites and tools out there with WAY more functionality for a fraction of their subscription cost.

I think visuals arent "bad" if they give simple context for a shared vision. Instead of showing the map of Tremelaine's gem mine, instead just show the image of a mine entrance. Something to give focus to the group that they are in a mine.

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

That's a great technique!

I usually describe what the room is and the important stuff in the room. The players can ask for more information and I give it to them.

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Yes! Starting simple and adding details when prompted by players is generally a great way to go

One thing I'd like to note with using theater of mind is to make sure your players mesh with that. Some people literally cannot visualize things in their minds so giving them a picture can be invaluable to their experience.

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks again for the thoughtful comment. That's a great point

Seeing the comments below on Crit Role - I think Mercer might also build it up more, because of it being broadcast. It's not just for the players, it's for the audience as well. However, I do agree with the points brought up here for the average RPG group.

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

You're very right about them knowing it's a show and leaning into it!

@Hoi4o

3 жыл бұрын

That's one of the reasons I don't like Critical Role so much. It's not just a group of people playing D&D and having fun, it's a show depicting a group of people playing D&D and having fun, a bit like a TV series. It looks way too polished and way too prepared.

@cjams115

2 жыл бұрын

@@Hoi4o it depends on the campaign, the earlier campaign is a lot fresher. At its start and core it was friends playing d&d together.

I get detailed in describing NPCs, but I do so by using a persona and acting out the behavior and voice of the NPC. The environment gets described as players ask questions.

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

That's an awesome way to handle it!

Like great books, great DMs feed you just enough texture to let your imagination fill in the rest. Great idea leaning on smell and especially temperature and humidity.

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Yes! Thank you!

I recently overloaded my players with pictures of rooms AND to detailed descriptions. Thx for your video, I give your tipps a try. (=

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Hope it helps :D

Bob! Your hair has looked great the past few videos. Also your comedic timing is getting better! Love the channel!!

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks so much! :)

This is great advice. I opened with a nightmare sequence last session, and I kept it fairly brief and I still lost a couple players lol. It's important to remember not to overdo it. Pausing to build tension is also a great point. That way you're not reading a script. You're having a conversation.

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

I do little dream sequences from time to time as well, and I've found that using intentional pauses there helps snap everyone back to attention. But overall keeping those brief it important!

I use theatre of the mind when running the game for my kids. I learnt d&d so I could DM during Covid. Your videos are really good and relatable to how we play. Thanks for the great content.

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

That is awesome! Glad you've been enjoying these videos :)

I get the temptation to draw out a battle map for every single encounter but I agree that theater of the mind is often the best route. I'm of the opinion that battle maps are for larger more complicated encounters with many moving parts to keep track of for the DM AND the players!

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

I totally relate to that!

Just to add...and following on from your comment on Matt Mercer's technique...unlike Matt, when there's a storm in your game it really isn't necessary to blow and spit all over the table trying to create the atmosphere. We can recall many big storms from film and tv so just imagine those instead.

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Hahah but he makes the best thunder sounds!!! ⛈

@BronzeRivet

3 жыл бұрын

Part of the CR thing is that all of them are basically voice actors. Matt's just using his voice acting talent to do accents and sound effects help fuel the narrative. It seems fun for him and the players, so, why not? Did you see the one where he ended an episode with a creepy voice, and even in a room full of professional voice actors who know him and his professional reel and have been playing D&D with him for years, he still surprised them? Even managed to scare them a little. Or like that squeaky hinge sound he can do... first time I heard it I wasn't watching the screen, and I went back 15 seconds to see if he made the sound himself or used a prop. Little thing, but I was impressed. Or the time he did the sound of a sarcophagus lid being moved? Amazing. He has the ability, it is great that he uses it. And if other players and DMS can or can't that's ok! To me it is like fight choreography. What weapons a character uses is part of the expression of that character. How they use them is another. Do they tire quickly? Are the efficient or extravagant? Etc. (paraphrasing from Sword Fighting: A Manual for Actors and Directors, by Keith Ducklin and John Waller). It doesn't take a lot of time to build these in if you can. If it is fun for the DM and the players don't mind? Why not?

Great vid. Personally, I don't use theatre of the mind a lot, since I've been playing on Foundry VTT for a while now and use a ton of battlemaps, but even with all the visual aids I use, I've found that clear, concise, and succinct description is everything when it comes to painting a compelling scene for players. Your vids are awesome man, big props to you!

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

I really appreciate that! And hey, since you use Foundry, the sponsor of this video now has content that ties right into that platform: foundryvtt.com/packages/dscryb

@mattskuce4524

3 жыл бұрын

@@BobWorldBuilder I haven't seen this module, that's really cool! So far I've been using dual monitors and rocking OneNote on the side for my notes, but this seems like a really cool option; appreciate the Intel!

On the center panel of my DM screen at the top I have written: SLOW DOWN! I can sometimes become nervous when everyone pays attention to me and have a habit of talking too fast, glossing over details, and not consulting my notes. I constantly remind myself when I have to speak, to calm myself, take a breath and pause, and take my time saying what I have to say.

Thanks Bob, great points! Side note, I like to make sure I have the key points of interest listed if it's an encounter where I think those will be important for the players. This could be simple like "A lever, high stalactites, rickety scafolds." I can expand on those as the DM to add more flavor, but i can also reiterate these key interest points to the players so they have some ideas they can play off.

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Very nice! bullet pointing details like that is so helpful and sets you up for great improv!

Thank you so much for all your tips and stuff, really it’s been a big help, I will definitely show support soon :)

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Awesome, thank you!

Great tips! Will definitely be using them in my future sessions..thanks!

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Great to hear! You're welcome :)

This is a great video Bob. I've gone pretty prose-heavy in past 'in person' games I've GMed. But with a game I am running over Discord right now with a few friends, I have been finding that pretty much doing what you describe here has been working well there!

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Awesome! Glad it's working :)

Wonderful vid with great advice. Gotta remember to leave gaps more often.

3:40 Gratz. I developed that technique too. Each player describes a bit of something they see, making that object, or location (etc) something unique and made at their pov.

After playing GM-less RPGs for a little while I've never gotten blank with descriptions, now I prepare parts of the world to be filled by my players and it's been awesome!

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Ooh I love that!

@plaidpvcpipe3792

2 жыл бұрын

What is a GM-less RPG? How does it work?

Such a good video, has a calm smoothing voice, good and correct tips very good

Brilliant video, Bob. As a fledgling GM I found this video extremely helpful, and I like your gentle approach as well. Thank you!

Dude, you are awesome! Thank you for this content!

I try to visualise something in my head and then add a detail or two that jumps out to me. Like if I'm picturing a mine, I might describe dark damp walls or a puddle on the floor, if I'm describing a dwarf I might describe thick bushy eyebrows and a whiskey red nose. I think that's how MM does it too, any episodes I've seen he tends to give 1-3 very specific details rather than a detailed description of the full person or place. Something I've learned as a DM is that the players have their own mental image and my job isnt to convey my one, it's to help them conjure up their own images

Bob, your videos are always so great! I'm a D & D player at heart but my friends have no interest in running a d and d game. I'm preparing to run my first game of 10 candles and I feel like the temperature/humidity point was spot on! Thanks for what you do!

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you! And congrats for taking on the role of DM! You're going to love it :)

Number two tip is awesome, I have a beast master ranger and a moon Druid in my party rn and they’re keeping a running tab at the local inn of “Boulder (the BMR’s bears name) _.0” every time a bear dies in the party, which is quite often lol they’re up to 8 at level 5, we started at 3

Matt Mercer: you step into the Blacksmith shop. *Proceeds with a 2h prose describing the shop, the shop keeper, the spider web in the corner, the smells, etc* Players: yeah nah yeah, we are going to the pub instead.

@BenC...1975

3 жыл бұрын

But on the other hand when Liam has a new magical house we all have to listen for 2+ hours as he goes onnnnnn and onnnnnn....oh, also that reminds me...cat noises...don't!

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Haha, listening to an recent interview of Matt is what prompted me to make this video, haha xD He talked about how players will make unexpected decisions, then he has to come up with a new location on the fly-- but no! You don't, Matt! Keep it simple 🙏

@gamewrit0058

3 жыл бұрын

😂

What a nice guy! Thak for your videos, they are really good

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

That's very kind of you! Thanks :)

I keep my descriptions short and punchy, using natural language. I'll use references my players will recognize. "The darkness in this room feels like a forced blindfold. Its cold. The kind of cold like sitting in your car in January before the heat comes on."

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

That’s a great point! I like to throw those in sometimes when I can’t think of a setting-appropriate analogy, referring to your car description. I try to keep it light for immersion’s sake, but ‘swinging like baseball bats’ has come up several times in my DMing career

Great vid as always. I'm also a big fan of less is more when it comes to description. You can always give more detail later once the players investigate or ask for more info on a specific thing. As a player I also find too long descriptions boring. It sometimes feels like it's keeping me from playing the game. I want to do something but the DM just keeps droning on.

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

That's a great technique! I had a period of going way overboard with NPCs, and eventually realized a name and race is usually enough until the players become interested in them as a character

Thanks! I forget less is more sometimes and try to thoroughly describe each scene. I think Professor DM mentioned once that too much description can cue players into unimportant details simply because they’re described just as well as important details.

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Totally! The professor knows his stuff!

@zenhikerjoe844

3 жыл бұрын

That’s when it’s time to steal a plot hook from your players and they end up thinking you’re a genius! 😆

@OddTitan

3 жыл бұрын

@@zenhikerjoe844 For sure, it took me awhile to understand some of the improv and prepping less. I was stuck in the trap of trying to make the module work instead of running with a good idea when it came up.

As someone who's literally unable to imagine scenes, I love having visuals. I can think of facts about an area or a room, but I'm simply not able to imagine it and "see" it in my mind. Sounds funny coming from someone who enjoys DnD, a game that's literally designed to be played in the mind :D

I really like the idea of using gaps in your descriptions. :)

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks! It definitely helps me when I do occasionally plan a slightly long description/scene

I use to ask the player interacting with the NPC to describe it. When you say "the bartender cleaning a jar" they already pictured him, every extra detail you give will go against that.

I remember reading about "enhancing your descriptions". It focused on your five senses; sound, smell, touch, sight, taste. You might not want to do all of them if they aren't important, and may use them in different ways such as touch could be the temperature in a volcanic caldera as opposed to the sticky spider webs in a forests.

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah, that’s a great approach!

Thanks man, good work 😎🤘

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

You're very welcome! Thanks for commenting 👍

I try to just actually describe the important stuff in a room/scene, and use familiar descriptions of places we know in real life or fantasy, just to give off the feeling of the place. I really struggle with verbal description though! I normally draw/search images that pass off the vibes I need

I use visuals while DMing online all the time. Usually I describe it first, then show the visual, giving them the chance to imagine it will before its shown

And dscryb is all I ever needed! Thanks, Bob!

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

That's awesome! I really think they provide a valuable service

2:10 I have to agree. I love Matt Mercer, and yes the man's a genius at D&D. But one of his very few weaknesses is over describing the environment. My attention tends to drop a bit during those moments. Actually, if he included some of those silent spaces in those descriptions and gave my mind time to catch up, that might help me personally. But also, I do love the rich descriptions!

K.I.S.S. = An acronym I learned in engineering applies quite well to a number of things, "Keep it simple, stupid." If you can use it kind of like a mantra, you can really avoid the pitfalls of being over-elaborate.

I still remember my party of 3 running curse of strahd's death house and tpk'ing to the specter because it would just oneshot all of them and had effectively 44 hp because no one in the party had magic damage. The broom got a surprise round on the level 1 rogue and knocked him unconscious and after the paladin went to get him up he almost got knocked down aswell after some lucky rolls from the broom. Low level is wiiiild and i feel like those start modules should always explicitly warn the reader to make sure to tweak those values depending on what their party starts with, as i can see a party of 6-7 players really not struggling in there at all, particularly with a few magic users, or if my players had some magic items to start with to get around the non-magical damage resistance.

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Haha, the Death House claims another party :P

I use a dry erase marker and draw out maps after I've described them. Theatre of the mind until combat begins. Or I'll let them draw the dungeon based on description, I've tried that a little.

Great video! Loved your series breaking down 10 Towns and the different quests. I'm planning in incorporating a lot of your suggestions. Any plans to tackle the quests in Chapter 2? I would love to hear your thoughts!

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Just scheduled Chapter 2 for next Wednesday :)

@gunslinger571

3 жыл бұрын

@@BobWorldBuilder Looking forward to it as I do with all your videos! Thanks, Bob!

There was a DM at WotC, Rodney Thompson, who was a master of giving concise but evoking descriptions, one of the best I've seen. I don't see much video content from him these days but he's moved on to his own company, ScratchPad Publishing, doing some superhero RPG stuff.

Speaking of using maps and their impact on the imagination. I had a session where I chose a really cool map for my players initial HQ. I had planned a break in that occurred there. Though I failed to notice the dead bodies placed in the middle of one of the rooms on the map. So I went with it and described the two dead bodies. It ended up being a lot of fun and the session had a lot of interesting twists. Such as a kobold one of the players visited had a home whos walls were draped with all these different colors. The middle of the room had furniture low to the ground like an Arabic majlis with a table in the middle having meat and fruit. When the player was ready to leave the Kobold wouldn't let him go out the front door because he was concerned he had been followed. The kobold asked the PC to come up a spiral staircase to an attic which had a carpeted trap door that was actually a garbage shoot. The player had a bad insight roll and stood on the trap door which took him to the garbage bin on a lower level in Sharn. He was able to get out of the garbage bin. Just a little smelly. I'm basing my campaign in Eberron. The descriptions worked out great.

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

It’s very cool that you just rolled with it and everything turned out great! True dungeon mastery :D

Have you any tips for describing the landscape during travel time? My problem being that my setting is a vast desert with few cities along the rivers. Travelling from river to river means days of criss-crossing the dry sand

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Honestly, I would see what dScryb has for "desert" then just read a little about deserts on wikipedia :) I know they are more intersting landscapes than popular media would have us believe. They could have massive canyons and rocky areas, incredible ruins, bones of ancient creatures, etc. There's a lot of things you could throw in!

@TroySpace

3 жыл бұрын

Also, in deserts you can see a lot further: you can spot caravans many kilometres away and see their campfires at night; even a small oasis or well has a huge significance - are there bandits lurking there? Do you need the water so badly you must stop?

I am building a system that emphasizes one sentence descriptions... one sentence should be all it takes to describe a single scene, detail, action, and reaction. You can chain them together, but one sentence is generally all you need. "A dim crimson light illuminates the crude stonework of the cave walls as you make your way through its darkness, the smell of brimstone burning in your nostrils signaling you to the presence of a dragon somewhere within these twisting catacombs. Suddenly, you feel the ground beneath you give way with a crumbling shift: A trap! What do you do?"

BOB, got any tips for running theater of the mind? That's the way I started out playing with adnd2e, but we ignored movement speeds etc and played in a sort of "final fantasy" lineup skirmish. I've come to enjoy using a battle grid, but sometimes I long for those theater of mind days. I'm not quite sure how to do it with 5e. I feel like there are too many important features for game balance, like flanking, opportunity attacks, light and vision, and spell area of effects.

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for asking! My way of doing theater of mind means some rules go out the window. You can still using flanking, but I just describe distances in terms of movement speeds, sometimes in intervals of 30’ since that’s common for movement and spells. The important part is reminding the group of general locations and distances in your descriptions. And using a quickly sketched, non gridded drawing helps a lot

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

-adding to my comment, this is probably worth its own video! Thank you!

Thumbnail was great!

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Haha, hoped you liked the video too :D

RE: Getting the Group Involved. Best to set the expectation that you are going to be doing this. Otherwise, you'll catch your players out and they'll say something brilliant like "Uhhh...I dunno"...which is a perfectly acceptable answer to being asked to improv world-building when you weren't expecting it.

Lol waterdeep kenku map on candlelight Ln or whatever, just ran that for my kids the other night.@6:02

I think wanting less descriptions is less an issue that some descriptions are too long and more one of your players not caring to feel immersed

I try to hit three senses with my descriptions and leave it at that unless something comes up or a player asks for more.

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

That is perfect!

Wow. This golden!

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you for the support :D

I'd never heard of descryb until this video. Within half an hour, I'd given them my money. Thanks for the heads up!

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Glad I could help!

I really like to let my Players describe the world. If they step into a shop, which i didnt plan or have any idea, i might give them 2-3 points to hang up on and let them go on from there. So they get immersed more AND also see my sight of the table a little. And yeah... its not always perfect. most times it's pretty blunt and not detailed. But it doesnt have to be, so i also dont need to give them super high-maxed out details for everything they do. If my players interact with my world, my NPCs can interact with their world. and now It's ours!

Good tips

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Glad you think so! :)

Sound advice as always

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

That's my goal! haha, glad you liked this one :)

@zenovkayos5811

3 жыл бұрын

@@BobWorldBuilder of course This one and all your videos, always useful content 👌👍 I am becoming much more comfortable as a new DM now :) Thank you 😊

You may want to get a plant light for your little friend there

Keep it short and simple and force the questions. Good advice.

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Just like your comments, haha Thanks, Fred!

@HowtoRPG

3 жыл бұрын

@@BobWorldBuilder lol

Ever notice how 5 GUM commercials were pretty monochromatic? Vision was never the sense they were trying to evoke/stimulate

Great advice (as usual). My perspective is that; Info dumps are BORING. It's much better to "prime the pump" of a player's imagination and let them (silently) fill in details for themselves. Imagining is (should be) the biggest part of the game. Very helpful video.

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Well said!

Asking for the players to help describe the world is great with little kids, but I find that it breaks immersion with experienced players. I find presenting them with a picture and/or map helps fill in a lot details so that you can spend more time on other aspects of the narrative: smell, atmosphere, light, etc...

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Using a visual to help focus on other senses is a great point. And in my experience, collaborative descriptions are immersive for all ages!

Your character falls head first into a water puddle and dies... unless you pull your head out of the water. :3

A big plus for describing scenes is scale. A ginormous pillar. Canyons in the distance. And really drawing out phrases when describing size. Great video as always. Can't wait for more!!!

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Ooh that's a great technique!

Use as many pictures as possible. Just search for cool pics & build encounter locations around them.

Why was Mercer the cover pic for this vid?

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

He is known for elaborate descriptions, I talk about how he is known for that in beginning of the video, and him talking about descriptions in a recent interview inspired me to make this video

I feel like only something that can be interacted with or affects the game should be described. When I tried to get too fancy with environment descriptions players would often get stuck thinking there was something there.

here take my like. I haven't even seen your video yet, but i feel better all ready: I wish there was a "vocabulary bank" to go fish for appropriate words when describing stuff. If it was appropriately organised it would be even better!

@recowabunga7200

3 жыл бұрын

such bank, if it were to exist, wouldn't need to cover all possibilities, but if it covers 80% of the words you're looking for, that's a perfect-enough start! Fighting descriptions, senses (smell, sound, lighting... etc...)

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Haha, I really appreciate your confidence in the content :) And honestly, the sponsor of this video does a pretty good job of that. Not a word bank exactly, but a collection of brief descriptions to use. And a list would make good video topic in the future!

@recowabunga7200

3 жыл бұрын

@@BobWorldBuilder I must say i looked at the sponsor. I like it. But for my context (I'm french and some of my players don't speak english) it's hard for me to correctly batch translate in advance all the stuff. (fluidity drops a lot when you translate on the fly).

I'm just really bad w the fancy words 💀

I love getting the players to describe their actions (un/successful attacks, sneaking around, failed/successful saving throws) as well as the elements that don't impact the story too much. It gives them more agency and ownership of the story, and gives me a break

Every time

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

👍

Sound advice. Related to that I fear I rely too much on prepped NPC dialogue, particularly when setting up the party for a quest. There is a delicate balance between providing enough exposition to give enough details to immerse the player in the conversation while keeping things concise.

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Well said. Finding that balance is different for every group!

No more than three sentences per room

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

That's a good rule of thumb!

Dungeon Jesus is right! We should all implement these rules for descriptions in our games.

Big toothy maw?!

#ToothyMaw.

Less is more...great vid....MM done loads for dragging dnd into non crap status....but.......sometimes...yah know...

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

Haha, I know what you mean

Part of the fun for me as the DM is getting into detailed descriptions. If others don’t like it then that’s fine, they don’t have to listen to me describe the entirety of it, but I’m still going to do it because it adds to the unfolding story as I see it in my mind. The players are still free to draw their own conclusions about certain shops, and if my descriptive DM style is overwhelming or boring for them, they can find another table. The more I listen to this guys videos the more I disagree. But that’s life! We can’t all be the same or the world would be a super boring place. Hope y’all enjoy his advice! As for me, I’m unsubscribing.

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

You're so right! D&D, and what truly makes it fun, is different for everyone. Maybe our paths will cross again some day!

@RoninOfTheSunflowerGaming

3 жыл бұрын

@@BobWorldBuilder absolutely! I’ll still check out your videos from time to time, some of the advice you give is great stuff!

Politics in games is usually factions. You do not have many political intrigue games; it is usually ad&d style of the bulliwogs hate the lizard folk, who hate the orcs... how can the pc's use that to get allies?

This dude allergic to table

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

No... my weakness revealed!

Most of DMs are not actors. Take it down a little bit because kids want professional jobs without paying or putting zero effort.

Pretty sad using Matt Mercer's face as clickbait.