Dungeon Master Brennan Lee Mulligan Answers DnD Questions | Tech Support | WIRED - video Dailymotion

Metatube

Dungeon Master and Dimension 20 host Brennan Lee Mulligan visits WIRED to answer the internet's burning questions about Dungeons & Dragons. What are Brennan's tips for first time DMs? How do you make compelling characters? What does someone need to get started playing Dungeons & Dragons? What's the most accurate representation of DnD in pop culture? Answers to these questions and many more await on Dungeons & Dragons Support.    SPECIAL THANKS TO BEX SCHWARTZ and The Montauk CLUB D&D Club    0:00 DnD Support  0:15 Most iconic monster  1:04 A great DnD character design tip  1:54 Friendship  2:54 Getting started with DnD  5:03 The best representation of DnD in pop culture?  6:23 Practicing your girl voice  7:20 How DnD alignments work  8:36 Paladins, Warlocks, and Sugar Daddies  9:21 Squish squish  9:51 I think he has dice but he’s afraid to show them to anyone  12:49 Fudging  14:04 The DnD golden rule  14:37 Favorite DnD character race and class combo  15:46 How do you handle a tpk?  17:05 But first, the tavern.  17:40 First time dungeon master tips  19:09 Critical roll vs Nat 20  20:05 When the dice won’t commit to the bit  21:02 Favorite spell  21:27 Can I play with you guys  22:34 Visiting another person’s campaign  24:30 Favorite magical item  25:09 You know what grinds my gears  26:11 Niche lore  26:59 If anything it’s the opposite  27:40 How much prep?  28:51 How many different editions  29:51 New rules?  30:42 Yee…haw?  31:32 Dungeons and Drag Queens? I’m in.  32:18 What does a Mimic look like when it's not mimicking?    Director: Lisandro Perez-Rey  Director of Photography: Kevin Dynia  Editor: Richard Trammell  Expert: Brennan Lee Mulligan  Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi  Associate Producer: Paul Gulyas; Brandon White  Production Manager: Peter Brunette  Production Coordinator: Rhyan Lark  Talent Booker: Mica Medoff  Camera Operator: Christopher Eustache  Sound Mixer: Sean Paulsen  Production Assistant: Ryan Coppola  Groomer: Denise Renee Valentine  Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin  Post Production Coordinator: Rachel Kim  Supervising Editor: Rob Lombardi  Additional Editor: Jason Malizia  Assistant Editor: Billy Ward  Still haven’t subscribed to WIRED on YouTube? ►► http://wrd.cm/15fP7B7   Listen to the Get WIRED podcast  ►► https://link.chtbl.com/wired-ytc-desc  Want more WIRED? Get the magazine ►► https://subscribe.wired.com/subscribe/splits/wired/WIR_YouTube?source=EDT_WIR_YouTube_0_Video_Description_ZZ    Follow WIRED:  Instagram ►►https://instagram.com/wired  Twitter ►►http://www.twitter.com/wired  Facebook ►►https://www.facebook.com/wired  Tik Tok  ►►https://www.tiktok.com/@wired    Get more incredible stories on science and tech with our daily newsletter: https://wrd.cm/DailyYT    Also, check out the free WIRED channel on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Android TV.     ABOUT WIRED  WIRED is where tomorrow is realized. Through thought-provoking stories and videos, WIRED explores the future of business, innovation, an

Transcript

00:00I'm Dungeon Master Brennan Lee Mulligan, here to answer your questions from the Internet.

00:03This is Dungeons & Dragons Support.

00:11Okay, first question.

00:12Obama Prism VHS.

00:14The most iconic parenthesis famous D&D monster.

00:17You gotta love a Mimic.

00:18A monster disguised as a treasure chest.

00:21Now, I love these monsters because

00:23they only make sense in a world

00:25where so many people

00:27are going into haunted dungeons

00:30that entire strains of monsters can evolve just to eat adventurers.

00:34Think about how rare of a food source an adventurer is on Earth.

00:37And think about the fact that there's so many monsters out here being like,

00:40if I disguise myself as a treasure chest,

00:41at least one person a week is gonna open me and I'm gonna eat them.

00:44I would say my favorite D&D monster has to go to the Owlbear.

00:48Hoot Growl.

00:49The mascot of the Aguefort Adventuring Academy

00:51and our favorite monster over at Dimension 20.

00:54Why would you mix an owl and a bear together?

00:56Bears are more dangerous than owls.

00:57Just have a regular bear.

00:58But no, we made them half-owl.

01:00Incredible. No notes.

01:01This next question comes to us from at Sparrowboy.

01:04Is there any secret?

01:05How do you come up with such great character design and personality-wise?

01:09I always feel empty-headed when having to create a D&D character.

01:12The things that not only are fun right away,

01:14but stay fun and sustainable a long time,

01:18are creating characters that are wrestling

01:20with a heroic problem that I can keep coming back to.

01:25Perhaps their Wizarding Academy was burned down

01:28or their parents were heroes that were betrayed.

01:31Perhaps a war is raging across these five kingdoms.

01:34Pick someone from one of those kingdoms with something to lose.

01:37Not only on a physical level, but an emotional one as well.

01:40Pick characters who care about the world they are in

01:44and you will find yourself swept away by adventure very quickly in D&D.

01:48That's my advice to you.

01:49This next question comes to us from at ILoveYourMom3.

01:53Provocative.

01:54Question. What's the greatest magic of all?

01:56Answer. Friendship, right?

01:59The greatest magic of all is not friendship.

02:00It's chronomancy, the ability to control and warp time.

02:03If friendship were the greatest magic...

02:04Look, it's a pet peeve of mine.

02:06Greatest magic of all...

02:08Do you remember?

02:10Is friendship.

02:12What the f*** is wrong with you?

02:14There's a lot of stories out there where the greatest magic of all

02:18is love or friendship and it's like,

02:20oh, because you loved so well,

02:24it created a magic spell that protected you.

02:27That is so cruel to everybody else in that fictional world who died.

02:32Do you get it?

02:33If your love can magically protect you,

02:35then what follows from that is anyone who died didn't love hard enough.

02:39It's f***ed up. Just think about it for two seconds, all right?

02:42You can't be doing that.

02:43The greatest magic of all is powerful magic

02:45and you should use that magic to help the people you love.

02:47They're not the same thing.

02:48Greatest magic of all, chronomancy.

02:50At Rogelioval123.

02:53So exactly, what are the stuff that you need to play Dungeons & Dragons?

02:57Do you need to buy separate sets of stuff or do you make it yourself?

03:01Rogelio, my friend, first thing you need is friends.

03:04And that's hard to come by, I gotta tell you.

03:07The hustle needed to get six people to clear a Wednesday night

03:11is the stuff of legend.

03:12The rules of the game are contained in typically three books.

03:17We refer to them as the core rule books.

03:19Sometimes the Dungeon Master will have those books available for you to come play.

03:22Sometimes they'll have them digitally like on a service like D&D Beyond.

03:25Pencil and papers to record your character sheet.

03:27This is what a typical character sheet looks like.

03:30You can get these online and print them out for yourselves.

03:32Or you can store your character information on a digital character sheet as well.

03:36And some dice that generate random chance throughout the game.

03:41You want to attack a dragon?

03:42Well, we don't just decide that.

03:44Where's the fun in that?

03:45We roll dice to see if you strike true or not.

03:49So with dice, pencil, and paper, some rule books, and some pals,

03:53you could be playing Dungeons & Dragons right away.

03:56Now, you may have seen a lot of D&D tables in popular media

04:01with cool little figurines and miniatures like my friends right here.

04:05These miniatures are, listen, we can all agree, dope as hell.

04:09But they are optional!

04:10Miniatures and counters and tokens are there to physically represent battle and combat.

04:18But that is technically an extra.

04:21You can at your table play in a style that is known as theater of the mind.

04:26I like to use the minis and the counters because there's a lot of abilities in D&D

04:31that are hard to keep track of.

04:32And having a battlefield set out I think is worthwhile

04:35so that if someone casts a fireball, with one quick glance of my eyes,

04:40I know exactly how many enemies just blew up.

04:43This dragon has been one of my most long-used miniatures.

04:46I think I was like two, one or two years old when I got this dragon.

04:49He used to have a little spout of fire, but I might have chewed that off when I was a kid.

04:54Regardless, this dragon's been with me for a long, long time and served faithfully and well.

04:58Good boy.

04:59Next question.

05:00From drinkyourhaterade on Reddit,

05:02what is the best representation of D&D in pop culture?

05:05With Stranger Things boosting D&D nostalgia,

05:07I've been thinking a lot about pop culture representations of D&D.

05:10What show or movie do you think has done the best job and why?

05:13I think what Stranger Things did that really helped D&D at a moment

05:17when a lot of cultural forces were conspiring to lift it up

05:20and actually showed it as being really fun.

05:23Inherently social, inherently thrilling.

05:26An activity that brings people together in shared storytelling.

05:29Baldur's Gate.

05:30People got to fall in love with Karlak and Astarion and these amazing characters.

05:35And Try Not To Smooch, which is a part that they don't write about a lot in the textbooks.

05:39But believe me, when you get to play in the game, people want to know if they can smooch.

05:43And at my table, as long as all parties involved have talked about it at session zero

05:47and everyone has their thumbs up across the board,

05:49if we're going to be out here slaying and smiting,

05:52why not add smooching into the mix?

05:53What's so wrong with a nice smooch?

05:55I tell ya.

05:56There was also a D&D movie that came out recently that I think did a very good job.

06:00It had the tone and tenor.

06:02The worlds of Dungeons & Dragons are these arch, epic, fantasy universes.

06:07But the experience that most people have playing at the table is that things get goofy.

06:11There will be moments of romance.

06:12There will be moments of shock and danger and dismay.

06:14And so that movie did a good job of showing some of the lightheartedness

06:18that exists when you're actually playing through these D&D worlds together.

06:21At BuckDucky.

06:23I'm DMing a game for a bit and I'm trying to learn how to make a female voice for an NPC,

06:26but I'm very bad with voices.

06:29I think that it's a mistake to try to pitch up your voice for playing female characters.

06:34As a Dungeon Master, I have to play every different kind of person

06:37because I'm playing everybody in the world that my players are going through.

06:40Someone told me recently that the characters that I make sound like me,

06:45meaning when I voice the character, I just use my regular voice,

06:47are women and bad guys.

06:50That's something I should unpack with a professional.

06:53I don't know why that is, but that's who gets my real voice.

06:56I just use my regular voice when I'm playing women.

06:58Unless there's like a regional accent or they're older.

07:01You know, like if I'm playing the Baba Yagas.

07:03Did someone say a little bit of penis?

07:06Ancient folkloric Russian witch.

07:09Ehehehe, where is my pen?

07:12You do the voice for the character.

07:14I don't think you need to do like a stereotypical woman voice.

07:17At JLMoonlight92 asks,

07:20can you tell me how D&D alignments work?

07:22How do I know if someone's lawful good or any one of the others?

07:27Alignment is an element of tracking player character ideals.

07:32From earlier editions of the game, it was identified along two axes,

07:35your ethical and moral axes, and it produced nine alignments.

07:38Lawful good, paladins, heroic, neutral good,

07:41most aligned with the good sphere above.

07:42Chaotic good, Robin Hood,

07:44those that stand against tyranny and oppression and fight for freedom.

07:48You have lawful neutral, which is a sort of automaton,

07:51rules for their own sake, neither good nor evil.

07:54True neutral, no values at all.

07:56Kind of cool, cynics maybe.

07:58Chaotic neutral, pure chaos for its own sake,

08:01utter rebellion, anarchy.

08:02Lawful evil, the alignment of devils

08:05and those who seek conquest, tyranny and oppression.

08:08Neutral evil, pure cruelty and oblivion.

08:11Chaotic evil, slaughter, rampage, ruin,

08:15sort of violence of the demonic realms.

08:18Those nine alignments, people love them

08:21because I don't know if you know this about human beings,

08:22they love personality charts.

08:24It's stuck around for a long time,

08:26even though it's not the most robust way

08:28to categorize moral philosophy,

08:30but goddamn people love a chart

08:32that tells them what kind of person they are.

08:34From CamilleDoesDnD,

08:36the difference between paladins and warlocks

08:38is one's got an employer and the other's got a sugar daddy.

08:40But like, which one is which?

08:42If anyone's got a sugar daddy, it's clerics.

08:45You know it and I know it.

08:46When we talk about paladins in D&D,

08:48we talk about heroic holy knights

08:50that swear an oath to an ideal.

08:51When we talk about warlocks,

08:52we talk about people that have sworn a pact

08:54to an otherworldly entity capable of granting them magic.

08:57I believe that technically warlocks

09:00have the sugar daddy reputation kind of locked down,

09:03but I would argue that clerics

09:05are in a very similar relationship.

09:07I think the difference between a warlock and a cleric

09:08is aesthetic more than it is anything sort of more tangible,

09:13but that's getting into fantasy, cosmology, and theology,

09:16which we simply don't have the time for.

09:19Why are wizards so squishy?

09:21What, you want hit points

09:22in addition to being able to bend reality with your mind?

09:25Wizards are so powerful.

09:26They're like the most powerful class in the game.

09:28If you can survive those low levels,

09:30you're gonna be dominating battlefields

09:31from here till the end game.

09:33A D6 is fine.

09:34I come from 3.5, where they had D4 hit points,

09:37and I think we should go back to that.

09:39I think they got it too easy as it is now.

09:41D6 hit dice.

09:42They should be squishy.

09:43Stay on the back line.

09:44Let your barbarian have some fun.

09:46This next question is from a fan.

09:48This next question comes to us from Nui Ren.

09:50Among things I don't know,

09:52and I'm at this point kind of afraid to ask.

09:54Don't be afraid.

09:55How many sets of dice do D&D players have and why?

09:58Do you have separate sets for different characters

10:00or for different quests?

10:01Or just because they look cool?

10:02They look cool, my friend!

10:05Why not have as many as you can?

10:06I have an enormous pouch of dice.

10:09This is filled with dice.

10:13If I'm gonna throw an upcast cone of cold

10:16at my adventuring party,

10:17I need to have a ton of dice ready for that

10:19in the moment, ready to go.

10:21As you play the game longer,

10:22it actually is worthwhile to invest in more than one set.

10:25In your first set of dice,

10:26you will get seven different dice typically.

10:29The first and greatest of them all is the D20.

10:32We say the letter D for dice

10:35and then the number of sides on the die.

10:37So this is a D20 because it's a 20-sided die.

10:39Then we come down to the D12.

10:42I'm not gonna lie, it doesn't get a lot of action.

10:44It's sort of for barbarian hit dice,

10:46great axes, and not too much else in common play.

10:50But we love the D12.

10:51Fun fact about the D12, it never stops rolling.

10:54These next two dice I'm gonna show together,

10:56D10 and another D10,

10:59but you'll notice that this one

11:00has two digits in every place.

11:02So you roll these together

11:03and here in the tens digit, you produce a number.

11:06So that's an eight, and then in this other digit,

11:08you produce a nine, that's an 89.

11:11Coming down from the D10, you have the D8.

11:13This one sees a lot of play.

11:14We're talking long swords and battle axes.

11:16There's a lot of cool higher level spells

11:18that do D8 damage.

11:20That's a real fun one.

11:21And then there's one for folks that have been strapped in

11:23going, what the hell is this guy talking about?

11:25The D6, you know this guy, you love the D6.

11:28This is like the normal die.

11:31We use the normal die, we're talking about fireball damage,

11:33talking about wizard hit dice.

11:35I use the D6 for recharging breath weapons,

11:38which you always hate to see, but you have to do it.

11:40It scares your PCs, it's great, it's fun.

11:42You will have these somewhere in your house,

11:44probably in a normal board game.

11:45Maybe you're playing with like a new board game

11:46night with friends and someone goes like,

11:48pass me the D6, you're like, ah, I caught you.

11:51You're a secret TTRPG player.

11:52Normal people don't call it a D6, they just call it dice.

11:55And then the D4, this one always trips people up

11:58because it's got multiple numbers on each side,

12:01because it lands with its point pointing up

12:03and you have to see which numeral is upright.

12:07The D4 is the bane of messy housekeepers everywhere,

12:12because if you let dice fall on the floor

12:14and you're walking at night to get a glass of water,

12:16this bad boy's going right in your foot like a Lego.

12:18I have stepped on these so many times.

12:20And additionally, these are used

12:21for the smallest numbers possible.

12:22So like attacking with a dagger,

12:24like the damage of a small knife is a D4.

12:27Your D4 will always be the last dice on the table

12:30because they're hard to pick up.

12:31And so you're there looking foolish,

12:33grasping at your hands with these up pointed dice,

12:36frankly annoying dice.

12:37I find the D4 annoying.

12:39I can say that we have a long relationship,

12:40you're not going anywhere.

12:41Some of these dice are reliable

12:43and their personalities are good,

12:45and the D4 is not on that list, sorry to say.

12:47Question here from at memes lich,

12:49should Dungeon Masters stop fudging dice rolls

12:52in Dungeons and Dragons?

12:53Fudging a die roll is something that a Dungeon Master

12:56can do with the aid of this handy little screen.

12:58It's called a Dungeon Master screen.

13:00You put that up at the table and all of a sudden,

13:02what am I up to back here?

13:04This screen enables you to do really fun stuff like this,

13:06where you go, okay, the monster's gonna attack.

13:09Oh no.

13:10If you were to see that I rolled a two and still hit you,

13:13that might prompt you to be like,

13:14we need to run away from this battle right now.

13:16There's a lot of stuff that is reasonable

13:19to stay hidden behind a DM screen.

13:21A DM hides their stat blocks behind here.

13:23I usually make it a little homebrew index card

13:25with all the players' game stats on it.

13:27But there's then a temptation for some DMs

13:32to fudge die rolls.

13:34Typically this is done to spare the player characters

13:37from a terrible fate.

13:40You're attacking your PC.

13:41It's the last one standing.

13:43And they've got 10 hit points left.

13:44And you roll that monster attack roll.

13:46Oh, it's a nat 20.

13:47They're about to do double damage.

13:49This is about to be the end of the campaign.

13:50Maybe they didn't roll a nat 20.

13:52Maybe you could say that they rolled something else.

13:55That temptation is there for DMs

13:58that suddenly get a soft heart for their PCs.

14:00At ride the dirt, also just some leftist, hell yeah.

14:04What is a golden rule you try to follow

14:06for hashtag D&D or other hashtag TTRPG

14:09for folks at home?

14:10That's Tabletop Role Playing Game.

14:12The golden rule I try to follow is

14:13you're playing with your fellow players first and foremost.

14:17If you follow every rule

14:19and stay completely in line with the module,

14:22the books are never gonna say thank you.

14:24You're playing with other human beings at the table.

14:26Stay tapped in to what their experience is.

14:29Are they having fun?

14:30Are you all telling a story together?

14:32That is the measure of a great tabletop game.

14:34At PHX Mall asks,

14:36what's your favorite character race and class combo for D&D?

14:40I tend to come back to paladin and wizard.

14:43I love a paladin's oath, striving for honor and justice.

14:47We did a photo shoot a while back

14:49with wonderful Andrew Max Levy as a paladin.

14:51Who doesn't love a knight in shining armor?

14:53It's a classic hero archetype.

14:55And you get to smite.

14:56Who doesn't love to smite?

14:58Give me those D8s.

14:59And I also like wizards because they're very magical,

15:02but they weren't born that way.

15:03They had to work very hard to get magical,

15:05and I identify with that.

15:06But for the person asking this question

15:08of is there a certain advantage,

15:10typically there are certain things that dovetail.

15:14Like if you're gonna play a barbarian,

15:15which is a strength-based class,

15:16there are gonna be certain ancestries

15:18that give you a bonus to strength

15:20in some editions of the game.

15:22There's also some fun stuff about playing a character

15:23that's a little bit more well-rounded.

15:25Every so often it can be cool,

15:26even if you're playing a strength-based character, to go,

15:28oh, and because of this part of my background,

15:30I have a weird little cantrip or a magic spell I can do.

15:33Even though it might not be optimal,

15:35that weird little power

15:37that doesn't exactly fit into your build

15:39may be the thing that saves you and your friends

15:42from a total party kill.

15:44At delusionaldo1, how do you handle a TPK?

15:48Do you full reset or just pick up at the last save spot?

15:51Any other things you like to do after a party wipe?

15:53Handling a TPK, which for folks at home,

15:55is a total party kill.

15:57It is when every member of an adventuring party dies,

16:00all at once.

16:01I think sometimes the best way to handle a TPK

16:04is before it happens.

16:06If you're heading towards a battle

16:09that is absolutely punishing

16:11and stands a chance of really wiping out

16:13everybody in the party, say it.

16:16Say it above the table and say it in-game.

16:18Have a moment where you check in with your players

16:19and go, hey, no shame in running.

16:22This has a chance of killing everybody in the party.

16:25Take your time.

16:27You approach the dungeon.

16:29Drums beat in the dark.

16:31Fires flicker from torchlight.

16:34The smell of death is everywhere.

16:36Taking the time to add some gravitas

16:39can sometimes wake your players up and go,

16:41oh, our buddy is suddenly being very dramatic and serious.

16:46I think we might be in trouble.

16:48If you do all that due diligence and say,

16:50hey, you can make a brave last stand here.

16:52You all may die.

16:53When they do, they had some agency in it.

16:57The thing that makes a TPK really unbearable

16:59is when players feel like it happened for no reason.

17:02At sessions canceled.

17:04Why do we always start games in tavern?

17:06Some groups tend to make their characters

17:09isolated from one another.

17:11Where do people congregate?

17:12In a medieval setting, in a public house,

17:14in a place of drink and libation and revelry.

17:17I would say probably there's a deeper answer here,

17:19and I haven't seen anything written about this,

17:21but I would hazard a guess

17:22that it is in maybe unconscious homage

17:26to the Inn of the Prancing Pony in Bree,

17:28where Strider first meets the hobbits

17:30in Lord of the Rings, which is a seminal text

17:32and serves as the basis for a lot of the lore

17:34within Dungeons and Dragons.

17:36This next question comes to us from AtRottenWork.

17:39Does anyone have any tips for a first-time DM?

17:42I'm having my first session zero for a campaign tomorrow,

17:44and I am nervous, LOL.

17:47First of all, laughter will help,

17:49so I'm glad that you're lolling.

17:50Second of all, you're doing a session zero?

17:53My friend, you're way ahead of the curve.

17:56Session zero, for those who don't know,

17:57is a pre-campaign session where DMs will line up.

18:02Sometimes people will do character creation there.

18:04Sometimes that happens beforehand,

18:05and a session zero is just to line up

18:07what the adventure's gonna be about,

18:08any rules of engagement.

18:10So the fact that you have got your situation

18:12buttoned up enough that you're doing a session zero,

18:15you're off to a great start.

18:16Second of all, tips.

18:18What's the nugget, Brennan?

18:20What's the secret little sauce?

18:23There's not one!

18:24You gotta slug it out like the rest of us.

18:26You gotta get your hands dirty.

18:28You gotta jump in two boots first and run the game.

18:30Is your first session gonna be clean?

18:32Are you gonna remember every rule?

18:34Are you gonna nail every NPC?

18:36Maybe yes, maybe no, but the point is this.

18:39Your first session is the learning experience.

18:42You're gonna jump in, and you're gonna learn

18:43so much more in that first session

18:47than any internet dungeon master could tell you.

18:50That being said, the answers lie in your players.

18:53Just listen to them, tap into what is bringing them joy,

18:56and you will do wonders, my friend.

18:59Rootin' for ya.

19:00This one's from atgary26817438.

19:0526 million and some odd Garys before this one.

19:09What in the world is a critical roll?

19:10Don't you mean a nat 20?

19:12You're thinking of a critical hit.

19:14A nat 20 is the highest possible roll on a 20-sided die.

19:18When you get that nat 20 roll,

19:20on an attack roll, it's an automatic hit,

19:21and it deals double damage.

19:23Thrilling.

19:23Most DMs, and I would say the fun ones,

19:26not to put myself on one side of a fence,

19:29will homebrew that a nat 20 is also an automatic success

19:33on a skill check.

19:34Now, this does certain things to game balance.

19:36The game rules as written does not say

19:38that a nat one is an automatic failure

19:40or a nat 20 is an automatic success,

19:42but I am part of a camp of dungeon masters that believe

19:46if the possibility for success or failure

19:48does not exist on a given roll,

19:50why are you asking for it in the first place?

19:52Just say it's impossible.

19:53If you're gonna ask someone to roll a die

19:55and they roll a nat 20 and they still don't succeed,

19:59it doesn't feel very good.

20:00And we're here to feel good, so.

20:02This next question is from andydoodle56.

20:05Question for hashtag dungeon masters.

20:07If D&D is improv, in parentheses, yes and, with dice,

20:11what do you do when the dice really don't want

20:14to tell the same story that you do?

20:16There's a great expression,

20:17which is that the dice tell the story.

20:18You're taking a D20, you're rolling it.

20:20It's the most climactic roll of the campaign.

20:22I attack and get an 11.

20:25I needed a 19 or higher.

20:26I missed my opportunity.

20:28Perhaps I will be struck down the mountainside here.

20:30Your job as a dungeon master is to immediately start

20:33to think about what the story beat is

20:35that accompanies failure.

20:37Failure is not anathema to storytelling.

20:40Failure is a key and critical component of storytelling.

20:44Downbeats, moments of ruin and wrath.

20:47These are what drive heroes on to greater and greater ends.

20:50The reason we play with these dice

20:52is so that we can surrender control.

20:55Maybe this isn't the big heroic victory you thought it was.

20:57Maybe this is actually a setback.

20:59At wildmagicsurge, what's your favorite D&D 5e spell?

21:05Oh man, is it shield?

21:07I love shield.

21:08It's just really fun.

21:09Reaction, plus five to your armor class.

21:12I think, favorite D&D 5e spell, fireball, fly.

21:17I will say this, third level is the best spell level.

21:20All the most fun spells are third level spells.

21:22Atlee, 51,765,627.

21:27I want to learn to play Dungeons & Dragons.

21:29How do I find people willing to play with a newbie?

21:31Well, yeah, I love playing with newbies.

21:32Playing with newbies is the best, but you are right.

21:35It is hard to find a group to play with.

21:37I think the best thing to do, honestly,

21:39is if you have people you're close with,

21:42you have a group of friends, all learn the game together.

21:45It doesn't matter if you're stumbling through it.

21:47It doesn't matter if it feels arcane or Byzantine

21:49or it's hard to get through.

21:50The important thing is you're spending time

21:51with people you care about and you love.

21:53If the crew around you, if your friends and network

21:56aren't as interested in tabletop games as you are,

21:58frequenting game nights at your local game store.

22:01Have game nights where you can come

22:02and meet people and join a table.

22:04There's also services online to find physical,

22:07but also digital playgroups.

22:09So Start Playing Games is a company that serves

22:11as a sort of matchmaker to not only hook people up

22:14with other people to play with, but also Dungeon Masters.

22:17Matching services for Dungeon Masters

22:18that charge for their services.

22:20There's free Dungeon Masters.

22:22There's free groups that get together there.

22:23All these things are available for you at your disposal.

22:26So there's a range of options, but yes,

22:27it is a challenge, but there are ways to do it.

22:29Here's one from Bex Schwartz on Blue Sky.

22:32Thanks, Bex!

22:33Hi, intrepid hero Brennan Lee Mulligan.

22:35How does your prep for an adventure

22:37in someone else's campaign, such as Exandria

22:40in Critical Role's Calamity, differ from preparation

22:41for the worlds beyond number that you are building?

22:44Thank you for the question, Bex.

22:45I deeply appreciate it.

22:46Shout out to Worlds Beyond Number,

22:47the podcast that I do with Aabria Iyengar,

22:50Erika Ishii, and Lou Wilson, edited by Taylor Moore.

22:52I was fortunate enough to get invited to come

22:54and run a series in Exandria for Critical Role

22:58as a part of their Exandria Unlimited series.

23:00Basically, whenever they need someone to crash a flying city

23:03somewhere in the history of Exandria,

23:05Matt calls me up, they light the little bat signal,

23:08and I come in and make everybody sad.

23:11At the core of your question is,

23:13how do you create your own world from scratch

23:16versus how do you create a meaningful story

23:18in a world created by someone else?

23:20Creating the homebrew world of Umora from scratch

23:23for this epic fantasy podcast

23:25to stepping into Exandria, the incredible world

23:29of Matt Mercer and Critical Role

23:31that has been established over now three full campaigns

23:34and adapted into the Legend of Vox Machina animated shows.

23:37Pick your poison, right?

23:38A lot of DMs rely on pre-published modules.

23:41Exandria has incredible source books

23:43that give a DM the tools to jump into an established

23:48and exhaustively beautiful and rich fantasy world

23:51to just start telling your story in it.

23:53Other DMs actually sort of tend towards

23:56wanting to create from homebrew themselves,

23:58wanting to make their own setting

24:00and to be sort of the ultimate authority

24:02on where that world was

24:03and what was gonna be going on in it.

24:05The prep is very different and they're both wonderful.

24:07Short answer is, you gotta do a lot more reading

24:09for this one.

24:10You gotta do a lot more writing.

24:12There's something really beautiful and delightful

24:13about writing fiction in someone else's setting.

24:15Anyone now who's writing a Star Wars show

24:18is someone who grew up probably loving Star Wars.

24:20So there's an amazing focus on coming to something

24:24that you are a fan of

24:25and getting to light a little candle in that world.

24:28At Floraroon, a question for D&D and TTRPG friends.

24:32What is your favorite magical item?

24:33The immovable rod!

24:35Small metal wand that has a button on it

24:39and when you click it, it cannot be moved in space.

24:42That might sound trivial.

24:44The amount of shenanigans people get up to

24:46clicking it to fly, like jumping up like an acrobat.

24:49Someone was on an airship being chased by another airship,

24:53leaned off the back, clicked it and left it in the air

24:56and then you have to decide what happens

24:57when an airship collides with a ruler-sized bar of metal

25:01that cannot be moved no matter what.

25:04Chaos!

25:05The immovable rod.

25:06This next one's from Brysingwolf on Reddit.

25:08What common D&D-related behavior or quirk

25:11really grinds your gears?

25:12Mine is when people call the fighter class the warrior

25:15or call the wizard the mage.

25:17Not even sure why, but it makes me hate you a little.

25:19Brysingwolf, do not give in to hate.

25:21They know not what they do.

25:22I think for me, probably the biggest pet peeve

25:26has to do with a player making a choice as a character

25:31that really grinds the adventure to a halt.

25:36I think sometimes people will hide behind the sort of lens

25:38of it's what my character would do

25:41and will do things that are a little bit antisocial

25:43at the table and ultimately,

25:44there's not that much a dungeon master can do

25:47if you decide that your character

25:49wouldn't go on an adventure.

25:50If a DM comes out and says,

25:52your village is in danger,

25:54your loved ones are in jeopardy,

25:56the fate of the world hangs in the balance

25:58and you and you alone hold the sword of destiny

26:01and you go, I run, I'm getting out of Dodge.

26:04Good luck.

26:06Well, that's kind of the story over.

26:07At actually, I am incorrect.

26:10What's your favorite weird niche bit of lore

26:11that isn't fully developed?

26:12D&D created a cosmology for the afterlife called Planescape

26:16and it made it really, really weird

26:18because they never kind of thought you were gonna go there

26:20and then they built an addition

26:22that was actually set there.

26:23An infinite tower arises and ends in a torus of stone,

26:26like a big stone donut.

26:27On the inside rim of that donut is the city of Sigil

26:30and within Sigil, there is a lady of pain

26:33who has forbade all gods from entering that city

26:36and her servants are known as the Dabus.

26:39Tony DiTerlizzi, the original illustrator for them,

26:41I always think of them as big, tall,

26:42white-haired Who's from Whoville

26:44and they speak through emoji.

26:47They make little weird hieroglyphs out of light

26:50over their heads that only the Dabus can read.

26:53I think about them every day.

26:55What a crazy bit of lore.

26:56At Aiden Lair says,

26:58why did people think playing D&D was satanic?

27:01You're literally fighting Hellspawn half the time.

27:03That's a great question, Aiden.

27:04There's sort of two answers to this.

27:05One is D&D, by involving elements of folklore and mythology,

27:11had elements of things adjacent to the occult.

27:14There's a deeper answer,

27:15which is that back in the 1980s,

27:17it was like evangelical moral panic about that,

27:21but really, the evangelical right in this country

27:23needs to manufacture outrage to hold onto its voting block.

27:26So that's your real answer.

27:27It was arbitrary,

27:29as the targets of their outrage always are.

27:32You know, fight the power.

27:33Are you gonna include that?

27:36This next question comes to us from Shuffleopagus.

27:38I wonder how much prep a DM like

27:40hashtag Brennan Lee Mulligan does.

27:42Like, dot, dot, dot, what do his notes look like?

27:45My notes are garbage.

27:47I have terrible notes.

27:48My 14-year home game that I ran,

27:50the system I had for how to manage the lore,

27:53was a, at the end of 14 years,

27:55412-page, indecipherable Google Doc.

28:01Paragraphs of lore interspersed

28:02with random initiative counts,

28:04unlabeled as to what battle they referenced.

28:07Terrible stuff.

28:08So, if there's any part of you

28:10that doubts your abilities as a GM

28:13based on having seen a GM out there in the world

28:16with like an incredible digital spreadsheet,

28:18or I know DMs whose prep work is flawless.

28:22Matt Mercer rolls up to the table

28:24with stapled sheets of paper

28:27with all of the lore of the setting,

28:29and I got like a bullet point list on a Google Doc

28:32and a wish and a prayer, and that's about it.

28:34I rely a lot on improvisation.

28:37That stresses some DMs out.

28:38Other people rely a lot on preparation.

28:40That stresses other DMs out.

28:42Find your style that's right for you.

28:44It brings the most joy to your players and your table.

28:48This one's from at Yum DM.

28:50How many different editions of D&D do you actively play?

28:53I play most actively 5e.

28:56Up until last year,

28:57I was also playing 3.5 extremely actively.

29:00There are many editions of the game.

29:02I came into the game playing second edition.

29:04You wanna talk about crunch,

29:05come talk to me about Fayco, baby,

29:07to hit armor class zero.

29:09Imagine a 10-year-old boy

29:11with two sliding sheets of graph paper

29:13to align a set of negative integers

29:16with the value of a die roll.

29:19That required some math.

29:21Negative numbers are good, tough.

29:23However, there are also many other games

29:25aside from D&D that I play.

29:26Other big ones like Vampire the Masquerade,

29:28Call of Cthulhu, Blades in the Dark.

29:31My friend J.Dragon does Wander Home

29:33and Ysabe's Bed and Breakfast.

29:34There's great indie games out there

29:36for anyone who is like,

29:37oh, I've had a taste of heroic fantasy

29:40in playing Dungeons & Dragons,

29:41but I want a sci-fi experience

29:42or I want a more poetic experience

29:44or an even crunchier experience.

29:45The world of tabletop role-playing games awaits you.

29:48This next one comes to us from at Warforgedice.

29:51D&D players, how do we feel

29:53about the new D&D rules slash mechanics?

29:54Hey, I hear ya.

29:56I know that we love so much

29:58of the old way the game was played.

30:00The changes to Counterspell and to Divine Smite.

30:03Ask yourself this.

30:04If you were making a wizard or a paladin,

30:07were you allowed to do anything

30:09other than those abilities?

30:10No, you were not.

30:11Counterspell needed to be altered a little bit.

30:13Divine Smite needed to be altered a little bit.

30:15Every damage dealing build

30:17that was a super damage dealer

30:18had to involve Divine Smite.

30:19It was mandatory.

30:20Counterspell, mandatory.

30:22And any time an ability in a game

30:24is mandatory, you have to ask yourself

30:26if it's a little bit out of balance.

30:27And the druids, letting them talk in wild shape?

30:30Yes, let them talk.

30:32I always want them to be able to talk in wild shape.

30:33That's a rule that just helps DMs.

30:35When is it ever helpful

30:36for someone to not be able to speak?

30:37It's never helpful.

30:39Let the druids talk.

30:39I want that dog to talk.

30:41At NotKavid, okay, but what if I said

30:43I wanted to play a Wild West setting D&D campaign?

30:45What then?

30:46We've played in many, many different kinds of settings

30:48and genres all across the spectrum.

30:50We have Fantasy High, where we play D&D

30:53in a high school for fantasy heroes.

30:55We play the Unsleeping City.

30:57At Madison Square Garden is a live show.

30:59We're playing D&D at the garden in New York City

31:01because the Unsleeping City is set

31:03in a magical version of New York City.

31:05We even played a Starstruck Odyssey

31:07set in the sci-fi setting of Anarch Era

31:10written by noted comics author Elaine Lee.

31:12Also my mom, if you can believe that.

31:15I adapted my mom's comic book series into a D&D campaign.

31:18There's a lot of people who enjoy homebrewing

31:21and stretching the creative boundaries.

31:22Chop-shopping or jury-rigging

31:24what they want their game to be about.

31:26Everyone has a different play style

31:28and all are valid and good.

31:30At Dickie Minaj.

31:31So there's a Dungeons & Drag Queens show

31:33and I'm just finding out about this.

31:35Yes, you can come over to dropout.tv

31:37where we play a mini-series called

31:39Dungeons & Drag Queens.

31:40Say hi, questing queens.

31:42Hi, questing queens.

31:45With some of the best drag performers in the world,

31:47Bob the Drag Queen, Alaska Thunderf**k,

31:49Jujubee and Monet X Change,

31:51who are so wonderful and incredible players

31:54and had the bravery and the chutzpah

31:56to sit down and play D&D for the first time

31:58on camera with me.

32:00They were phenomenal.

32:01The number one thing you want to look for in a new player

32:03is how much they care and how invested they are.

32:07And all of them went into it with their full heart

32:09and were just naturals right away.

32:11Took to the game so effortlessly.

32:13It was a joy and a privilege to behold.

32:15Next one comes to us from BugHopD.

32:17My son just asked a D&D question

32:19I don't know how to answer.

32:19What does a mimic look like when it's not mimicking?

32:22In their natural state, mimics appear as amorphous shapes

32:24with speckled gray skin, similar in appearance to granite.

32:27But since they are such shape-changing extraordinaires,

32:30you'll rarely encounter one in its regular form.

32:32Mimics are shape-changers, much like doppelgängers.

32:34We had a mimic in our high school for heroes setting

32:36fantasy high that looked like a standard

32:39examination room desk.

32:41I like to imagine that they have a penchant

32:43for disguising themselves exclusively as furniture.

32:47So, those are all our questions for today.

32:49I'm wishing all the best to you and your table.

32:51May all your hits be crits, and I hope you learned

32:54a lot here about the wonderful world

32:56of tabletop role-playing games.

32:57From here at D&D Support, Branley Mulligan, signing off.

Dungeon Master Brennan Lee Mulligan Answers DnD Questions | Tech Support | WIRED

Kategorie

Transkript

Empfohlen