What your DM wants YOU to do!

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Finally, a player tips video that isn't condescending that most players will take the wrong way if sent by their DM! Thanks Bob :)

Accepting failure is also a HUGE tip for GMs. When a planned session falls flat, don't hate yourself. Investigate sessions in the past that worked well, identify elements that made it succeed. Conversely, identify weak points in that "failed" session, so you never make the same mistake twice!

My favorite players throughout the years all had one thing in common: They chatted me throughout the week about their character. There were much fewer surprises in-game that way, they showed that they were invested in the world and in the game, I was able to know their goals and likes/dislikes better so I could tailor the story and rewards to them, and overall it just made me want to work harder on the game and the world to make it fun for them. Players who only talked to me and the other PCs on the day of the game seemed less invested, and would sometimes be disappointed or apathetic with the way their character arc and rewards went.

My golden rule: It's the job of each person in a roleplaying group, including the DM, to make sure everyone is having as much fun as possible, including the DM. Also communication in an open and respectful way, at the right time, is the key to groups that go on for years and years.

I thought I was immune to shitty player behavior since I had experience dming for a tough group but these vids make me realize that I’m just as bad at times and how to improve, as well as how to communicate problems with players without being a douche. Thanks for the advice!

Collaborating with the DM on your character's background is severely underrated! Creating ties to the world makes for a much more fleshed out character AND world, and also creates the opportunity for plot hooks and role play moments. If you're new or just don't want to mess with the setting, just ask how to make your idea work with his world. Good luck finding a DM who won't want to talk your ear off about all the different facets of his setting and they'll probably get a ton of inspiration just from hearing your idea!

I only played 4 sessions so far and the DM basically made us into the 4 four horseman of the apocalpsy. We ended up getting ambused by demons and now someone gave us four talking horses. We started to notice that weird stuff started to happen around us in town. I play a cleric and instead of healing people, the people I try to help get the plague. 😭 It was pretty exciting to figure it out. Now we have to "master" our powers so we can stop messing stuff up around us.

As someone who's been DMing for more than 40 years, I endorse this list. 😆 For the rules one, I would say that just learning the rules for what their character can do would be enough to make me happy. I don't mind helping players out with reminders or quick explanations of rules for unusual situations or when they are trying out something new, but I expect players to understand how their own class abilities and spellls work so I don't have to stop the game to look them up.

I got sent this video from our DM as a sort of "thank you" letter. That's so sweet. To share the effect that taking an interest in another PC can have, one of our players didn't know what to build for the game, so she settled on a complete joke character, not to be taken seriously whatsoever. Well, too bad for her. I did take her character seriously, and now we're BFFs in the game. Just taking her at face value got her more invested in the campaign than she would have been on her own.

A Bard became one of my all time best characters (I’ve been doing this since the 70s) when he & I became the DM’s asset. This occurred because the DM had built his own world from the ground up and I, as a lore master, showed a lot of interest in the world allowing him to info dump often. I also became the party note taker as well as composing an in-character weekly recap of the game which always painted the other party members as heroes of ledgendary proportions which further ingratiated me to the DM as well as the party.

I ALWAYS makes sure to give my players an after-session feedback survey. The three questions I ask are: What they liked about the session, what they didn't like, and if they'd like to add anything else. It can be tricky getting your players to consistently do it so I decided completing a survey would give them a point of my homebrew inspiration they liked. It half remedied it, as I can still struggle to get responses. But if you're open to criticism and improving it's a super helpful tool.

Accept failure? I full on embrace that. Failing is where my favorite dnd moments come from

Fun fact about a fellow player at one of our games: Her dark elf rogue's character name is Bonk because when she came to the surface world she was taken in by a family of halflings and the youngest son couldn't pronounce her dark elf name so he called her Bonk instead. So she kept the name. :)

As a player I managed to get a loop roaring with the DM which turbo-charged everything and brought huge amounts of detail and generated a phenomenal 25 year long campaign, much of which continued for me after the other players had dropped out years back. Cultivating a good working exchange with the DM and even feeding them creative data (videos, novels, graphics, scenarios) can make something really special happen. It's all about collaboration I think, despite me very much having to go it completely alone these days as a DM. 'Make your DM feel optimistic' is a good rule of thumb maybe. Bob World Builder, this video is really really good and I'd like to send the link to future players I get. Thought provoking and cool!

That last tip is something I have experienced as DM and am slightly ashamed to say, only started recently implementing it as a player. And BOY, does it help make the game fun, grounded AND smooth. Just by the simple act of asking or engaging with other people's backstory instantly transforms a group from a couple of mercenaries individually working at the same goal by luck of the fates to an actual group with greater stakes when a PC dies than just for the player that controlled that PC. As a wild magic sorcerer with large aoe spells and spells like dimension door that can save friends from the stomachs of monsters, it became so much more impactful when using those spells around friends and spending two of my turns just to give an ally a slightly greater chance of surviving than if I didn't. The sheer tension when you are standing next to a low health ally while a wild magic burst happens is something I would have never been able to experience before just talking to those silly little sheets of paper we call a character sheet with a backstory.

7:40 my absolute favorite dnd moment was when my dwarf barbarian was walking into the woods accompanied by the city guard in search of some threat, and what would have been just a description of the forest we were walking through and a skip to the next combat was entirely changed when I interrupted the end of my dms fantastic description with one simple question: "are there monkeys?" And because he was awesome he said "yes. Absolutely." And dove right into the description of the monkeys I see and then my barbarian yelled so loud the monkeys fell out of the trees and he went over collected the dead monkeys (finishing one off) and walked back to my now in aw group of soldier acquaintances turned fearful helpers. It took all of five minutes and it added so much to my character, the flow of play and the overall humor of the game.

13 minute video up for six minutes already has comments about the video. Hmmm... Bob must have said something early in video to engage the viewers.

I never really comment on youtube videos but I just wanted to say thank you so much for your excellent subtitles on your videos. Makes it so much more enjoyable as someone who struggles with hearing.

Fun Fact about one of my fellow PC’s: Their character told mine they were a noble, so I asked them what there titles were… Anyways my character now referees to them as ”Ressyn, the sweetest tongue, most beautiful voice, youngest son of the king Trogar.”