Improv and the Unexpected (GM Tips w/ Matt Mercer)

notes on notes and tips of tips!

going to have to reupload to fix the sex part. its gender now.

Sadly my players follow the murderhobo guidelines

is there an application for loot generation or is it best to just use the book?

My list of npcs are gonna have to have full character sheets cause one of my pcs loves murder😑

thank you matt i just ran one session of Call of Cthulhu with my friends yesterday, its fun being a GM tbh but it also can be frustrating

Timeless archive of GM wisdom

Just like I always said:
Spontaneity and improvisation are a matter of preparation.

why does this feel like 4,008 years ago.

Very knowledgable and very enterteining XD

Yeah I'm dming my first game and in the first 3 moves ever one of them started a bar fight and had to retreat the town they were in. ( They were supposed to get trapped in a raid)

Are you Leon Kennedy?

I still can't get over the fact Jotaro's VA plays DND. even though I could totally see Jotaro playing DND

Thank you sir!

Never played dungeons and dragons and don't know why I ended up here but its cool >_>

I'm partial to "Steve". 😂
Thank you for the tips!

the note pad seems like a powerful and understanted tool.

I love this Guy MM 🥰

I took none of his advice in, I was too enraptured by how ridiculously charismatic and engaging this man is when he talks

awesome!

Matt's my hero. Wicked jealous of the voices. Super inspired by the work!

The First Time I Ever Dm'ed Was in "Mines of Phandelver" Module where in The First "Bosses" Dungeuon there were Three Wolves Tied Up Starving My Players Who were 2nd Level at the Time Decided To go back to a Previous Untouched Goblin Camp and Sneak Attack the Goblins To Kill Them and Feed them to the Wolves they then procided to BOTH ROLL NAT 20s On Animal Handling If You didnt know already Wolves At Lower Levels for Campanions ARE OP they Give you a +5 to Stealth and Perception and with one Player Having 2 They had +10 on Stealth and Perception Also if you havent Dm'ed "Mines of Phandelver" Before nearly 50% of The Game Requires you To Sneak Around so We Have a Rogue With already a +3 to Stealth Who now has +8 and A Druid with shillelagh With +10 To Stealth i then procceeded To End the Session there and then Because i needed to think Of What To Do Now

One campaign I just want to be a business tycoon. Own every Tavern or every pig farm. Make a business making lanterns in factories.

thats my secret. i always improv the game

🤜👍🤛

I find some of these suggestions also work well with writing novels. It’s all storytelling & character creation and development. I watch Critical Role for fun & I usually have to make I have a fresh per pad on! Laughing that hard tends to weaken the bladder but it’s a condition I am ok with once a week!
I have watched my daughter play other games & I enjoy the play through; it’s all storytelling, no matter the medium. And I find characters I wouldn’t mind cosplaying at a convention, just for fun! In CR, Campaign 3 for example, I’d have fun cosplaying Evelyn! I’m older myself so I can understand her!

Absorbed every second thank you Matt

Man, it's been a long 5 years. Look, Matt doesn't have any grey in this video.

I've been totally caught off guard twice. once I should have seen it coming. The first time, I was setting up an ultrapowerful god level being that wasent even the villian, just the villian's patron. I was making all the locals cow as he passed, then one of the PCs yells "I CHALLENGE HIM TO A GAME OF CHESS." I rolled with it, the campaign never got far enough to make that really play in, but boy that was fun. The second time i should have seen it coming, I had set up them going on this one ship for a long time, set up as integral to the plot, yada yada. When the PCs got there they said, "Nah, too expensive" and tried to get alternate travel. I could have handled it better, but I was still new at that point, and made all the other boats superstitious and unwilling to do it. It is one of my few regrets

Yup i literally made sheets of every enemy both homebrew and copies from the MM and Volos, lamintaed them so i could just quickly whip them out and use a whiteboard marker on them(laminated for multiple uses). I made a 20 page loot roll table divided them into to fitting levels for each drop etc. AND a freaking 10 page on the fly npc invention board, i throw the dice 6 times and poof i have a random npc with a name/ambition/vague looks. YOU CANT DERAIL ME!

The DM: you meet the ghost of a noble elf Barbarian Giant: I attempt to play rock, paper, scissors with him

First combat I ran included some homebrew monsters. They were out in an open market when some dude collapsed onto the ground. He turned into a monstrous form, and after a nature check, the paladin recognized the creature, and knew that it was a parasitic infection. Dude fucking runs up to the thing, and uses lay on hands to cure him. Glad I had my backup monsters prepared. It ended when one of the monsters had its head blown clean off by the ranger with a nat 20, and with the bard telling the other his mom was gay. And I said "On his last shred of confidence, and on his last shred of life. Be falls over, and dies." Don't underestimate vicious mockery.

I started my campaign by running quick little introductions in which the PC would die, be transported to a different location as they died and that brought the PCs together. Impactful start, players get to do some rolling and RP, I get them together. Except one of my players had the gall to almost actually kill the Wizard that was supposed to kill them at the start. I hadn't at all planned for what would happen if a player lived but I also felt just killing the PC would've been in poor spirit so I offered the PC a portal to where I needed him to go, they rolled a nat one on Arcana to figure out where it went and I told them it definitely led to the Archmage they swore vengeance against and off they went.

Player doesn't know but not having died in their opening is something that's probably going to be extremely important for them at some point down the line now

"say your main plot involves a lodge that a cult is hiding in"
me, who needs campaign ideas: it's free real estate

This reminded me of one of my sessions where my players early on found the medusa blade wich i intended to be a late game item wich was protected by medusa they where almost killed instantly if it wasnt for one of my players rollong a nat 20 trying to rip medusa in 2

As a beginning DM'er, it really helped to stick to official stories and take inspiration as you go that you apply further.

I own both the Starter and Essential kit so I had two campaigns to play and combine eventually.

Had an ending to a one shot where I gave several warnings to the players that doing a certain thing would mean their doom.

They did the certain thing. I tried to give them a chance to get out of the situation, but they rolled terribly for their skill checks, including a natural 1 that had an elf fall down a chasm.

Half the party was dead, and the other two were either maimed or had some gnarly condition.

I did try, but I wasn't going to give them complete plot armor. :/

Last session my players had to go into a tsunami ravaged town to collect articles of importance for the refugee npcs. A pc unexpectedly asked a group of kids what they had left it town that they wanted recovered so I made up the name of some stuffed animal on the fly. Now I can’t remember that name. I’ve betrayed the imaginations of my imaginary children. Because I DIDN’T TAKE A NOTE!

I'm a beginner dm and this part scares me the most.

Im running a campaign now that doesnt even have a planned out story. obviously i have stuff prepared but for the most part im really leaning into the player agencey part of the game

i remember reading as story about a group who slightly deviated from the plot. and instead of talking to the mysterious figures always trying to talk to them they spent the next 2 years growing their merchant empire. poor DM

How I often check to make sure I'm doing a good job dming is think if I'm writing a book or not. Am I just coming up with a world while the characters make the story, or am I forcing them to go a way I'd like and that seems cool to me.

"DNd iS AlsO ABoUt ImPRoV AnD LettInG YOuR PLaYeRs DECiDe WHerE TO gO"

my players after i stop spoonfeeding them the story for 5 minutes: whines about how they need more directions on what to do and i should be writing a more clear story

I usually just let them go wild. I have a good party, and an evil party plus some rivals for both. (If I can) even if I have one party, I just plan out a side quest or two, an NPC and that’s it. The most preplanned part is the opening area, usually everyone is out in a dangerous situation and has to escape or win. I like to use a dungeon. Once they escape, maybe they had an NPC or two with them, not only are they level 3-5 but they are also kinda working together and have no reason to stop. I just start improvising what they do, and boom

Or have no storyline at all! Just go out in the woods and kill monsters 👍

This was a great & helpful episode

Tips:
1) Develop side plots for your characters
2) Develop extra NPCs for added depth
3) Keep cpmbat templates on stad by
4) Create unique traps and dangerous encounters
5) Generate fun items to reward your party
6) Create a complety immersive environment
7) Take notes