IamA Professional Dungeon Master - AMA!

I'm a Bard in our 3.5 Eberron campaign, while the Barbarian cleaves, the sorcereress casts spells, the rogue sneaks and our Artificer does her thing, I'm just telling my jokes and inspiring courage. I'll admit it does get boring after some time. I know I'm support. Do you have any advice as to how I can play the class better?

Btw I love your work. 2 year ago your "So you want to play a..." series was extremely helpful when I started to get into 5th edition and tabletop gaming in general. I wish I could talk more dnd/pathfinder with you but I know you're busy, just know that you have a fan in NJ.

Heyo NJ. Try to assist by setting up flanking bonuses, use a whip to trip foes, use the help action, learn and cast Haste (its amazing!), get a wand of enlarge person and beef up the Barbarian. Lots of ways! :)

Thank you. I usually cast Tashas Hideous Laughter to knock enemies prone. Our Barbarian loves that. Dominate Person is also really good, it creates an additional ally.

Keep up the great work and I look forward to your newest videos.

Those are definitely great spells!

Honestly, what's the average annual salary?
Is patreon the only source of income?

Patreon and YouTube combined, with some publishing and advertising revenue. Google requests that we don't share our ad revenue figures, but I will say that I'm making more than twice as much than I did as a public school teacher (though that isn't saying much).

What do you think of DnD constantly changing the rules from year to year?
(I myself was very into 2nd and I stopped playing at 3rd edition.)

I don't mind the release of new editions. The great thing about tabletop gaming is that the books and systems never become obsolete. Unlike a video game, such as World of Warcraft, where you have to operate on the newest patch and with the newest expansion, tabletop games will always work, regardless of what new edition is out.

Additionally, new editions attract new players to the hobby. 5E has been remarkable with how it has drawn so many to tabletop gaming who might have never played otherwise. New editions can also help avoid the massive bloat that comes when a system has been around for a while.

That said one of the downsides of new editions coming out is that previous ones find less support, both from the publisher, as well as from the community. It is definitely much harder to find a 2nd Edition D&D group than a 5th Edition one. It can also be taxing on the wallet to purchase all the books for one system only to be asked to do it again a few years later.

Ultimately though I feel it is a good thing. It keeps the hobby fresh, keeps publishers in business, helps avoid game bloat and each new rendition attracts new players to the game.

What would you say is the major differences between 3.5 (which I'm using in my roll20 game) and 5? I've never played 4 or 5, so.

3.5 has a lot more rules governing combat, particularly positioning and combat maneuvers. It also has many more options for creating characters, at least mechanically.

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So what happend to the idea to make a series about the inner sea guide like you guys did with the PF dieties?

After the deities Adam needed to take a break from video recording, and we just haven't gotten back to it since.

Tobad really looking forward to that serie. If adam or yousrself are not going to do it, you should hire the project out.

Is that you volunteering? :)

I'd 100% volunteer for this. Time zones would be a hassle since I'm in Japan but I'd be up for a fun discussion about basically anything in PF if it promotes community interaction. The editing wouldn't be too bad either if one or both of us just did audio, and designing slides related to content was one of my jobs last summer so I've got plenty of agonizing experience with that lol.

What Adam did with the PF Deities series was all his initiative and I'm always open to others featuring good content on the channel. It would not be something I could collaborate on, however, as my schedule is quite packed at the moment.

Haha nah you dont want me on camera lol

You don't need to be on camera. The whole deities series was just audio.

How in depth is your session prep? Can you show an example of your prep? How about campaign prep? Thank you.

I usually prepare about 4-8 hours per campaign before it begins, creating maps, compiling art, fleshing out adventure ideas. Once the campaigns are in full swing it averages to about an hour per campaign of prep. I showed some of my prep on a recent video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOrYtV5jIsg

Have you seen Stranger Things?

It is on the top of my netflix que and will be what I watch next, after I finish the last couple of episodes of another series.

Any tips for people new to the title of Dungeon Master?

My flatmates and I just started playing D&D and I must say I much prefer being DM to a Character.

I mostly struggle with resolving random things that my flatmates want me to do. I suppose this will come naturally the more I play but for now it makes for a pretty static gaming experience.

Here is a video with the 7 most common mistakes (and how to fix them) that new DMs make: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyIoh1QiW2g

Here is a playlist with a wide variety of tips to help you become a better game master: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTgwt_ewEFeOOkmlWK1i652_B9KWrI7XR

Is there a particularly epic moment or decision that your players surprised you with? What's been your favorite setting?

I'm not generally surprised as I get to know my players pretty well and communicate the theme and tone of the campaigns pretty explicitly. So I can usually guess what they'll do in a game, but every now and then what will take me back is actually when the players intentionally don't do anything surprising, don't take the initiative, don't engage in the hints and tips I drop for them. That is surprising.

My favorite setting has been our custom, homebrew world of Etape. It was crafted over the course of multiple livestreams and continues to grow as we set all our campaigns and one shots there. It is fairly classic fantasy but since we play in it so much I really enjoy how the sessions end up shaping the world for future adventures.

How often do you get to play rather than run?

Not very often, though if I asked some of my patrons I'm sure they'd run a game for me. Right now I'm playing in just one campaign, a one-on-one Shadowrun game. Its pretty neat learning a new system though.

Do you ever run a game without a story? Recently I noticed that me and my players often enjoy the nonsense and the experiences we have rather than the over-arcing plot. So it got me thinking why do we need a plot. So I am curious if you have every considered the same.

I've one of my campaigns that is going to be episodic. No overarching campaign story, just single adventures strung together. But usually a story is more appealing to most.

What do you think about 13th age?

I've no experience with that system. I'm not one who particularly enjoys a variety of systems, rather just focusing on a few to greater depth.

What rpg system do you personally enjoy DMing most?

I've really grown to enjoy DMing 5th Edition D&D. It hits the sweet spot between enough rules to provide a solid structure without so many rules that the experience gets entirely bogged down by them.

Wizards recently announced a partnership with Roll20 which I am very happy to hear about. I was curious though if you thought this was their solution after Trapdoor/Dungeonscape fell through?

I think they are beginning to realize that a very significant amount of gaming is now happening online, a venue that is growing rapidly. Rather than focus on gaming tools to use on your phones at the table, it is probably their view that they need to get on board with the most popular digital tabletop, and focus their resources there instead. While Roll20 can be tricky to learn it does the basics very well and, most importantly, it is free to use. The Free to Play model is dominating today's market, and it is a smart move to get involved in that.

in your experience, whats the best way to give the players a real choice in a custom campaign? Ive built a few of my own and try to let their choices have impact, but its hard to balance that with ample preparation. any tips? thanks

I find that most players don't want or do well with complete freedom of choice. Usually having just a couple, clear options is most ideal, options that have a significant impact on the state of the campaign world, region, story, etc. I find that setting up these choices at the end of a session and working on the outcome of those choices in-between games is a good way to really think through the impact.

I also like having all my campaigns take place in a single, living world, such that the actions of one group in a campaign can shape what future players playing in that world encounter. For example I ran a mini-campaign, 4 sessions, where the theme was the players deciding the fate of a city, deciding to aid the divine side, which had had their magic suppressed for ten years, or to aid the current rulers of the city in stamping out these rebels once and for all. There was also a third faction whose help they could enlist. By the end of the campaign they had sided with the divine, had thrown down the rulers, and had put the third party into power. In another campaign I ran the party came to this city, and now the ruler was the one the mini-campaign had put into place, and the city had changed based on how this ruler handled things. There were also the tales of what the first group had done.

Is there any kind of screen style table top system? Just thinking that it would be pretty cool to have an image of the different areas that can be pulled up rather than drawing and erasing mats all the time.

Side note - my one year old kept trying to interfere with our game a couple weeks ago when our sitter fell through. He is now dubbed "Baby Tarrasque." No point to this, just thought it was funny.

I use Roll20 for my digital tabletop and I've seen tables that have a monitor installed in them that people can use to have the maps projected, though I don't know any specifics about the program they use.

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I ask for more description about the room and why I'm there.

Cake or pie? Both in-game and IRL.

I enjoy both, though lean towards cake. In game it depends on the character.

1. Do you think classes should always be balanced?

2. Do you prefer high magic or low magic settings and why?

3. Do you ever go back to AD&D 2E supplements for inspiration?

4. How much world building do you do?

5. How did you get started?

6. What advise do you have for beginner DMs?

1. All classes should be able to contribute in different ways, each having their area of strength and weakness.
2. I prefer moderate magic settings. Magic items and spells are super important to include in tabletop games, but I also don't want magic to be commonplace.
3. No, I don't.
4. I do a good deal of world building, especially with my community. We've developed a whole lot.
5. A group invited me to play with them when I was 14. I was hooked.
6. This video covers a lot of my advice for new DMs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyIoh1QiW2g

How do you make battles less tedious?

Describe them in an exciting way! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TUX99bNAVk

So this is not a Dnd question and you might not know the system so I am going to ask a specific question and a general one.

For a very new game master (I have three sessions under my belt). What advice do you have for learning to put more emphasis on the out of combat sessions when the adventures are often written as narration between encounters? It seems like my session were about 80% combat and I don't want this but I was just running what was in the adventure, however I think I could have done the out of combat section better. Any advice?

Okay specific question time. In the 40krpg rogue trader I am running into issues with my psyker and navigator feeling like they don't get to contribute as much. Any suggestions for helping more specialized class feel like they always have things to do?

1. Create encounters that require the characters to solve the challenge without combat. Have some tough choices for them to make deciding between different factions or what direction a culture/merchant can take, etc.

2. Encourage the players to develop more facets to their character's goals and personalities such that they are invested in the success of all the ventures, not just the ones where they get to roll. Also, include more aspects to encounters and challenges that make use of their skills. Include a bomb that needs to be diffused during the encounter, so they do that while combat goes.

Alright thanks I will try to keep this in mind. I am in a position of having players you have gamed or gmed longer than I have been alive, so its not easy to impress.

If they are experienced ask for their help and input. They should be willing and eager to help you become a better DM.

They do offer help, but sometimes its in the form of, at least it seems to me asking more than I can do. Like not being too happy with the combat focus in the adventures and wanting me to write my own when I can barely run the prewritten stuff.

Ask them to be patient and tell them you're having a hard time just running the pre-written stuff. Tell them you need more help from them.

What do you think about the movie Predator?

Haven't seen it.

That's insane. Fix that.

Well, I've seen parts of it on TV, but I was pretty young when it came out. I know a few of the references from it though.

Not good enough. Watch the whole thing.

I'll add it to the list.

Do you have any suggestions for getting new players into the game?

Comparatively speaking I'm somewhat if a new player myself, but I've fallen in love with DMing and have had a couple of very successful campaigns with close friends. Although I've run into a problem with new players. Usually friends of friends that are curious about playing. I've been the one to step up and get these new players into a campaign, we make it past the character creation stage and get a few sessions in and I can't seem to get the players invested in the world. The don't really care to role play or get into character. Do you have a strategy for teaching new players how to interact with this aspect of the game?

I cover this topic more in depth pretty much every week on my Ask a DM show. In brief: encourage them to ask questions and you initiate roleplaying with NPCs asking the party members specific, easy to answer questions about their characters. Tie the story directly to their characters, make them the starts and let them have an impact on the outcome of the story and they'll feel more connected to the game and the world.

What's the longest campaign you've come up with as far as time spent playing is concerned?

About a year is the longest I've been able to keep a group together gaming.

My friends and I (none of whom have ever played before) are interested in playing and would like to start.

Would you come DM for us?

Alternatively, do you have some suggestions or guidance for new players trying to jump right in?

I won't be able to DM for you unless you're able to pledge through Patreon. Some suggestions would be to talk a lot, ask lots of questions and be patient with each other. Try to play good aligned characters, heroes, and create pretty straightforward stories and plots, borrowing a lot from books and TV. Over time you'll get better and will be able to better handle more complicated elements of the hobby.

What would you suggest for a DM who absolutely has NO artistic abilities but still wants to incorporate maps into their game?

The maps just need to serve the purpose of allowing the players to make informed choices about where to go. You don't need to worry about it needing to be high artistic quality. You can also pay for someone to make one for you, or use and adapt ones you find online. Lastly, just keep practicing. I started off pretty bad too, but now its functional enough.

When you say you're a "Professional", what do you mean by that?

It is my full-time job. I get paid to run games and teach others how to play.

Cool, I'm just curious, are you paid by WotC, or a large company, a consultant? The broader context is interesting since I've heard of only a few stories where people have made money being a DM.

I'm my own business. People pay me directly to run games for them, chat with them about the hobby or to teach them. I don't work with any of the gaming companies in a formal way.

Hi Andrew! I'm just curious, would you be interested in hosting a 5E one shot irl next summer? I know it's far ahead but I intend to go to America for vacation next year and I would have loved to meet you in person and of course experience the game as it was intended. (I will be hosting my own game starting in about a month but it's gonna be in Swedish so it's not the same. And of course the Fantasy Vale starts next week but it's not the same, it's gonna be awesome and fun and all but you know what I mean. :))

Well, it would depend on what part of the country you're going to and what my schedule is like during that time, but I won't rule it out.

Hey, thanks for doing an ama, what are some general tips for DM ing and your favorite campaign you have ever done?

Here's a link to my playlist of general DM tips: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTgwt_ewEFeOOkmlWK1i652_B9KWrI7XR

My favorite campaign, well that is hard to say, but it would have to be one of my custom ones. I rarely use published campaigns. Are you asking what its name was or what it was about?

thank you for replying and for the DM tips, as for the campaign, what was it about, what made it your favorite and your favorite combat or RP moment in it.

Well, still hard to say, there have been many good ones, but I'd say my campaign called Redemption of Aiden. The party, including my wife and a number of co-worker teachers, fled a conquered land to an unexplored region and tried to establish a new home. They explored, built a new town, dealt with a wide variety of local troubles. I enjoyed that a lot, mostly due to the engagement of the group. It was also in-person, and also on the channel.

What's the worst insult you've gotten about your job?

As someone who was trying to do something no one else was at the time I've been very thoroughly mocked and attacked for trying to monetize playing tabletop gaming. Some years ago a campaign of sorts was organized by some other YouTubers to try and stop my efforts. Thankfully they failed. :)

Good for you. As someone who has played with a lot of self-styled awesome DMs who were actually generic and boring tyrants, I grew to appreciate the awesome and creative GMs I played with. I would totally pay to have a good DM, because they're rare.

Keep up the awesome work!

Thanks!

First off thanks for doing this AMA, I've always been interested into the table top RPG realm but, have never had enough time to invest in it myself. As someone who has been playing solely video game RPG's and has interest in table top, would you ever be interested in doing a full round of new players when you run through a new cycle of campaigns in your Patreon. Side note I have some other questions that if you don't answer I totally understand.

1) How do you see AR and VR effecting the table top RPG experience?

2) Would say that table top RPGs are making a resurgence in popularity?

3) Do you solely play table top RPGs are have there been other board games that have peaked you interest?

If the patron is able to pledge, to commit to the campaign schedule, and is willing to ask questions and abide by my expectations of group play and cooperation, then I don't mind if they are new or not. I'm happy to go a little slower with a group. In fact I'm doing so with a campaign that I ran tonight.

1. I see them as helpful only if they become cost effective and if they come with a really extensive and easy to use developer kit. It does no good to have a VR experience for your tabletop games if you can't customize that to fit your campaign.

2. I think they definitely are. There are a few broadcasted tabletop gaming groups that have become very popular to watch and with them comes an interest in the game itself. It is really great to have companies be willing to financially support efforts like Critical Role and Acq. Inc so that they can focus fully on being entertaining to an audience, and they definitely succeed at that.

3. I've never had much interest in board games, though I've certainly played all the popular ones at least once. I do appreciate a good one and there was a time when I'd go to board game night at a local hobby store, try out a new game each time. They are fun but not my main interest.

I'll definitely try a session once I find some more free time. Thank you for your time. You're a good ambassador for the tabletop community.

I truly love this hobby and want to share the joy I've had with it with as many others as I can.

I've only played role playing games with friends. How do you prepare to allow new people you never met play? One toxic player can ruin everyone's day.

I've considered making a game master drive rpg network before, where people could meet up and stuff, but /r/rpg mods were ignorant to me when I asked for people to help beta test my software. I think my old we site with non debugged software is abcrpg.com

Stating your expectations clearly is extremely important, with new players you don't know, even with players that you do. I like to cover this in a Session Zero, which ideally happens before a campaign starts but can also happen at any time it is needed. In the Session Zero you talk about the theme and tone of your game, the rules and books you use, the expectations as far as etiquette and teamwork. You make this all very clear and the players can choose to join or not, depending on whether what you present fits their gaming style and preference. Always do this before you play, and always with new players. I'm working on a video covering this topic more in-depth and that should come out this week, so tune in to the DawnforgedCast YouTube channel.

Have you heard of Far Away Land?

I have not.

Hey man its great to hear youre doing this professionally. i wish there was more pro DM's. now that we are adults and have more money (but less time) for me its super clear that dming has to be compensated.

1- where are you located? do you do online and live rpging? 2- how often do you run the same campaign? do you ever get people doing multiple sessions a week? (once a week is starting to be a bit lacking for my roleplaying apettite lately) 3- im starting to think this pro DMing can become a thing. want to promote it more/kickstart it, would you like to be a part of that?

thank you very much and hope you get more and more successful with this!

1. I'm in Colorado though the vast majority of my gaming is done online.

2. We run each campaign once a week, three weeks on, one week off.

3. Not sure what you mean by kickstart it, but I'd be open to hearing your ideas.

What is your favorite species of bird?

No favorite.

Have you heard of Harmonquest? I am pretty sure you would get a kick out of it. XD

I have. I enjoyed the first episode, though not enough to get the rest behind the paywall.

Do you run games in-person only, or do you do group video chats as well? If both, what is more frequent? And how often would your group of players meet?

I almost exclusively run my games online now. It is easier to organize and the market for players is much wider. Each of my groups, there are 7 right now, meet once a week for about three hours, and we play three weeks in a row, with one week off after that.

What would you rate Matt Mercer as a DM?

There really isn't a DM rating system by which to judge people or assign them a score. I think that given how much his players enjoy his games, how much the audience does, and given the rather large size of that audience I'd say he's definitely doing something right.

Which game would you say is the best for people new to table top rpgs? I've had some success introducing my friends to Call of Cthulhu (d100 version) but it's very narrow in the kind of story you can have. Thanks for doing this AMA!

*Side note: Some of my friends aren't native speakers of English. They are conversational but not 100% fluent so the more intuitive the system, the better.

I recommend 5th Edition D&D or Dungeon World as a great way to introduce new players to the hobby. Their rules and mechanics are fairly simple and straightforward and there is a ton of support online to help new players out.

Thanks! I'll look into it. Have you ever worked with a group that had varying levels of English?

I have. I ran a group where English was the second language for everyone but me. Thankfully most foreigners are quite adept at English, though they always think they aren't.

Can you give a summary of how you came into this profession?

I began creating tabletop gaming videos about 6 years ago on YouTube. As time went on and my audience grew I began to be asked by more and more people if they could join in one of my games. When the demand became so great that I could either spend all my free time running games for people or keep turning people down, I decided that there might be a third option, and found Patreon.

It took a while to figure out just what price to set my services at but I had the YouTube channel as a nice resume of what playing a game with me would be like, and that attracted many people to pledge and sign up for my games.

Right now I charge $75 a month per player per campaign and we play three sessions a month. Our latest round of campaigns sold out very quickly, so its likely I'll be able to raise the rates in the future.

Glad you found a job you enjoy. 75 a month doesn't seem like a bad price at all either. I hope you business grows and good luck to you.

Thanks much! We do quite a lot behind the scenes and during the sessions to make sure that the campaigns are fantastic. Not only the stories and action but also the connection and participation of the group. We emphasize group play as the means to happy gaming very strongly, and I think it makes my games stand out from others, though there aren't many others doing what I'm doing. Actually none to my knowledge, so that's good for me. :P

Do you prefer when your players stick with vanilla 5e classes over classes such as blood hunter or psionic?

I usually prefer the core and basic classes with most systems.

What's the most complicated class you've had to work with?

Probably the Pathfinder Summoner.

What makes it fun? D&D just seems incredible boring to me, but maybe I don't have the right mindset.

I've got a video very specifically about the DM Mindset: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad08kAePocQ

One needs to enjoy coming up with worlds, stories, adventures, creatures, magic items. DMing massively rewards creativity. You also need to be someone who enjoys when other people are enjoying themselves. Your task is to facilitate that and you're happy when your players are happy.

Why do you always act like such an uppity douche?

I've come off that way to a select few throughout my life. It could be that I'm confident and speak my opinions in such a way, could be that you're jealous of my success, could be that I just have that sort of face. Most people don't see me that way though, so it doesn't bother me that a few do.

Why not make an earnest apology to the vloggers that you've wronged along the way? Not a saccharine video filled with emotional pandering that tries it's best to place blame anywhere but with you, your actions, or attitude toward your peers, but an honest apology, directed specifically at those you've hurt, and what you've done to hurt them.

But again, knowing how you behave online, this will never make it through to the AMA -- Your past actions are despicable, and your inability to sincerely apologize to the people you've hurt make you a coward.

This situation is nearly four years old right now, one that I've long since moved passed. I offered individual apologies, and made some amendments, to particular channels that my trolling most serious effected. I don't feel I have anything more to say on the matter in any public capacity, though it is tempting from time to time to want to set the story straight. The truth about that incident has gotten quite muddled over time, and many people who were utterly uninvolved with the situation have latched on to an exaggerated and misunderstood version of events. I won't aim to clarify that because it doesn't serve any helpful purpose. Those who want to keep disliking me will continue to do so, and the vast majority, and I do mean vast, have no interest or care in dredging up past misdeeds. They just want to talk about tabletop gaming, and that's all I care about too. I've learned from my mistakes and have moved on. It is quite time enough that everyone else does too.

When was the last time that you saw the sun?

About three hours ago. I take many walks with my wife and baby girl, and also alone. It is one of the best activities to help come up with gaming ideas.