Skip to main content

Youth DM Masterclass in Videos

So, I'm pretty confident at this point that I can point new Dungeon Masters, particularly those who want to DM for a group of Kids, to a set of videos on Youtube, and have them pretty darn equipped to start running games this weekend. 

Seriously, these videos pretty much sum up what I think one needs to know to get a group of kids sucked into a game and rolling dice in pretty short order. If you're getting ready to DM for some kids for the first time, and you have no idea where to start, I'm hoping that you will find this post to be a life saver!

Photo by Nika Benedictova on Unsplash
 I listen to these videos on my commute (like a podcast). If there's a visual I really need to see, I just revisit the video later.

Bear in mind, these videos will help you run the game. You will still need some basic components to get going, but I've got those covered in these posts:

The Absolute Basics

These are the videos that teach you the core mechanic[s] of the game. Understand these fundamentals, and you can probably make up the rest of the details. Literally, all you need to understand to be a great DM for your players is in these first two videos. Yes, there's still character creation and combat and all of those things, but if you get this core mechanic, you are 70+% there. The rest is the surface details that flesh out the game. These first two videos are the skeleton / internal organs... basically the entire innards / foundation of the game. 

Understanding the Core Mechanic  


If you need more on this core mechanic, see The Quest for Improvement section below, which has more videos on each of these topics.

The Core Component - Helping your players make a Character


If you need more on this core component, see The Quest for Improvement section below, which has more videos on each of these topics. 

Game Space - Making a Safe Environment. 

The Essential Pillars

These videos outline the details you will likely need to play the game. These are the rules that support the core mechanic of the game, allowing you to build great experiences for your players. 

Combat

Yes, your players are going to want to fight and kill things... That's a big part of D&D. Here are the basics from encounter building to what exactly happens in combat. 
 

 

Role Playing

You don't have to be a professional voice actor to provide solid role playing experiences for your players.  

Exploration


In other words, see "Understanding the Core Mechanic" above. 

Why these videos?? 

So, why did I choose the above videos as being representative of the entire D&D experience? I find them the most useful. There are a ton of folks making videos about playing D&D from Colville to Mercer, from the Dungeon Dudes to Ginny Di, and all are great! The above videos, from my perspective, most succinctly explain these ideas to a new DM, without a lot of fluff and fiddly bits. I love the, "This is what you need to know" approach. Now, that said, I branch out a lot more in this next section, which I consider to be the next steps. This is where you reflect and improve on this new-found skill.

The Quest for Improvement

These videos are ones you should check out after you've tried running a game. They will help you reflect on your experience and improve / expand your DM toolbox. I actually watch and re-watch the above videos frequently as well, and I've been playing and Dungeon Mastering off and on since 1992... 

"Level Up letterpress" by artnoose is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Improving your Understanding of the Core Mechanics 

A deeper look at Character Creation

More on Safety Tools and Session Zero

The Pillars - Advanced Combat

The Pillars - NPC's and Role Playing

The Pillars - Exploration

Playlists & Channels for new DM's & Players

There are tons of creators out there providing really great content that gets into the finer details of running and playing the game. I am subscribed to so many of them, and I don't want to leave anyone out, but these are the go-to playlists / channels for folks who are just starting out.

  1. Handbooker Helper - from the folks at Critical Role, this is a super-helpful & simple rules primer.
  2. Dungeon University - All of PDM's videos on playing the game stolen from his playlist.  
  3. Most Useful SlyFlourish Videos - The 8 Steps of the Lazy Dungeonmaster is a life-changing revalation... and that's just the first video.
  4. DM & Player Tips from Bob Worldbuilder
  5. VTT Resources - My Playlist of videos by myself & others on playing online.  

Again, there's so much more. I'm just trying to get you started. 

 





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Middle School D&D Club

So, I finally did it! I had the opportunity and support to start a D&D club at my Middle School building. Now this isn't a big after-school program or anything. This happens during the school day in our "clubs period" every other Tuesday. Joined by my friend and colleague, Jared Reck  (read his books!), I ventured to come up with a club that would introduce our students to this awesome hobby.  The Setup The advertisement we put in our middle school clubs catalog looked like this:  D&D is exceptionally inclusive. All you need to join is an imagination . Playing is like creating infinite stories that you and your friends write—and rewrite and re-rewrite—together. You’re all active participants in writing a unique adventure through different, fantastical worlds and scenarios. There is no winner. Instead, the goal is to deepen your understanding of your character by interacting with other players and their shared environment. Participation in tabletop cooperative role

Crazy Clinto's Handy Homebrew Hacks Part 2 - Go West!

I wanted to follow up on my recent post about homebrew hacks with some practical and free resources that you can apply today to create your own Gygaxian / Westmarches style campaign for your kids or students. I’m going to focus much more on materials and resources in this post than on theory and technique. I will link to some great articles and videos to cover theory and technique. This post was inspired by a recent video by Professor Dungeon Master and his son over on the Dungeoncraft channel. That video was inspired by a recent video by Questing Beast about time keeping in your campaign. For your convenience, I've embedded the Dungeoncraft video here: On the off chance that the above video didn’t give you a good handle on what this kind of campaign is, here’s the original source of this term, Ben Robbins explaining in detail. The Setting & Your Home Base I talked a lot in my previous post in this series on creating your homebrew setting. I’m not going to rehash all of tha

Perfectly Perilous

As I've mentioned here before, I am a Middle School teacher and I have a D&D club during our school clubs period. This is a super popular club with great attendance and others waiting to get in. It poses a unique challenge, though, being a part of the school day, rather than an after-school club. Basically, I have 30 minutes once every 2 weeks, to introduce D&D to kids with little to no experience, who are with me for a trimester, roughly 6 - 7 sessions if we're lucky.  Free Club Kit Wizards of the Coast sent me their free club kit, which included the a copy of the recently released D&D Starter Set: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle, instructions and guidelines for club organizers, a quick demo and learn-to-play guide for Dungeon Masters, easy-to-read character cards, a poster to advertise your club, flyers, a Campaign Case: Terrain, and a Campaign Case: Creatures. This was a great start. Especially useful was the a quick demo and learn-to-play guide for Dungeon Masters: &