You, too, can be a witch with an unnatural command of your worldbuilding information! Sign up for World Anvil free at http://worldanvil.com/ginny, and use code "GINNY" to take 51% off any annual membership once you fall in love with it (or you could try having congress with the devil... it's up to you, really.) #sponsored

I've been a DM/GM since I was in 7th grade in 1980... you never stop working to learn/improve and have more fun.

The "Yes, And" and "No,But" is going into the session Zero handout. Thanks Ginny

The game I'm currently running is in a homebrew setting. It's a bunch of islands floating through space magically tied to each other. This civilization is the only one the characters know about, and new islands float by and get captured by the civilization. Basically it means I don't have to be consistent about geography (it's always changing) and I can drop literally any dungeon into the world (a new island is floating by and your party is the closest, go explore it). The party wants to visit the market I invented in session 2? Oh look at that, your current island will pass it in a few hours, no need for a long travel time. The party wants to visit a location I made up on the spot and haven't figured out? Sorry that's not nearby, you'll need to hop through these other islands to get through it.

Big respect for how much effort she puts into the sponsor ads. Most creators I'll hear "today's sponsor" and immediately skip 60 seconds, but Ginny's I gladly watch every moment. Or even feel like I'm missing out if I do miss part of it. Seriously, well done

Honestly, as long as your group leave the table talking about how great that was… you’re doing fine 👍🏻

About the worldbuilding - don't try to detail the entire world at the beginning of you planning the campaign. That will just burn you out before you even start playing. Try to roughly outline the parts of the world you might be using later or you might need to refference and focus on detailing the part of the world where the adventure currently is happening. That way you can gradually expand your world by adding little bits without having to plan out every little detail right away.

The biggest thing I found that made me a better GM was finding the right party of players for the game I want to run. I put so much more excitement and passion into the game because it's the style and dynamic that I enjoy. The whole "find the right party for you" also applies to the GM

Anybody else noticed the shift in this video from DnD-content to the phrasing of tabletop-roleplay ? I think its a wise move to open yourself up to a broader community now with daggerheart and other systems coming back to the public mind. I like it.

Your ads always crack me up - when I realized the nose was a cone of serger thread and the cape was a pair of pants I LOST it

Thank you, thank you, thank you for talking about "No, but..."

"Yes, and..." is perfect for creating wild improv, but can be horrible for working within situations that have limitations either by design or by requirement.

I was waiting for "She turned me into a newt! I got better." during the sponsor segment. I thought that was a take on Monty Python And The Holy Grail lol.

I'm going to be going my first session on Sunday ahhh.

We're doing a one shot I found and hopefully it'll be a fun time! I'm excited and nervous and just want everyone to have some fun.

Long time GM.  I learned ad&d 2nd ed (yes, i'm that old) about the same time I became a licensed FIFA referee.  I feel the GM's MOST important job at the table is to manage flow and pacing.  Making sure all players feel engaged, knowing when to increase/decrease tension, and rewarding success are more important than exact rules (make a call and look it up later) or having fancy maps/descriptions/npc's.  When you are not running a game, read and watch film/tv in a similar vein of the type of game you are running.  This helps with visualization and generating dialogue.  Prep is useful, but plans rarely survive contact with players, so have an objective and be willing to change those plans to achieve said objective.

"who's your favourite dnd youtuber?"

"Oh that's easy, ginny di"

"Really? What makes her so special?"

"She makes momty python references in her sponser segments"

The hardest thing with that last one is that you're not the only one in the conversation and sometimes, no matter how hard you try, your players don't seem to hear a word you say, because they are the ones with the poor communication skills. You can offer up the opportunity to talk above table until you are blue in the face, if your players don't take it, there's only so much you can do.

🎶 "Everything must be perfect
Everything must be perfect
Everything must be perfect, perfect!
That's why everything, every last little thing
Every single tiny microscopic little thing must go... According to plan!" 🎶

stars and wishes was massive. my group has taken to talking about the session for a full 30 minutes afterward; discussing things we enjoyed, things that bothered us, and it even got more shy/anxious ppl to talk ab things they were uncomfortable with. i think talking about wat u didnt like ab a session openly is important, since ppl dont often advocate for themselves

As a small addendum to point #2, Matt Mercer's "You can certainly try..." is a great tool that can be either 'yes and' OR 'No, but' and you don't have to tell your players which one you're using until they decided if they want to risk it.  I love it as a way to ramp up tension for my players without cutting them off from their fun/crazy ideas.

"Focus on what you're good at and don't do what you don't like" also makes the idea of GMing at all so much less intimidating.