Have you guys tried some of these? Do you have other tips to share with everyone? I'd love to know!

A tip I really love for "instant NPC" is just imagine them as a specific Animal.

Dog NPC? High-power, very friendly, playful
Owl NPC? constantly stares at you, super silent but deadly if need be
Weasle NPC? constantly giggeling, super fast speaker, shady background.

The genius of this is that you already know Animal Stereotypes so the work is already done for you. You just have to asume those Personas to a certain degree and you have a memorable NPC with 0 Prep.

"being a killer DM" has multiple interpretations

I remember the reason I stopped watching your channel wasn't because I wasn't not interested in D&D and DMing, but because, I have no friends.

0:56 Adam Savage says that deadlines shouldn't feel like a vise, but a sieve through which the pressure of time pushes only the essential elements.

"Connecting the pieces" has been my life as a GM for 5 years! My players think I'm a genius puppet master with this huge fully mapped out network of interconnected plotlines that all lead to one place, even tho I've told them that I had like 3 plot points planned and 2-3 potential twist villains, they don't believe me lol

These exercises are… actually good! 😂 They feel more direct, detailed and actionable than many others I’ve seen.

Mine and my friend's DMing improved massively after we started DMing for each other using the only improv rule - minimal prep like just a few bulletpoints before a session and everything else gets done on the fly. It also improved communication, we can easily tell each other "hey I need like 30 minutes to set something up" and then we resume after that. It helped my friend in real life too, for her political career :D

the thing works for me is I like to draw stuff, specially maps, so i often just imagine things as i'm drawing it.

my number one most important tip is to read more. inspiration is never born in a vaccum and all of our ideas are built off of the things that we have seen and been moved by.

The more and the wider you read the more you can draw on different sources for your language/ideas and your descriptions become richer and more varied as this happens

As a product designer, I was shocked to see crazy 8's invade my d&d hobby! (really good video btw!)

This is the first video of yours that I've watched, and, frankly, I did not expect it to be much different from tons of others with similar titles... But holy smokes, was I ever that wrong! It's one the most straight-to-the-point, tangible, and practical piece of DMing advice I've seen. The exercises and prompts are excellent. Thank you, good sir. May you never run out of inspiration! Also, big fan of music analogies, such a great way to explain how creativity can be trained.

As a musician (guitar and bass player), I appreciate the examples and the way you put this into perspective more than most! 🎵🐲

Best DM channel out there.

There is so much content about running a game for the characters, but this channel is about inspiring and facilitating a group of players.

3:30 This is exactly what I like to do when I'm feeling a creative slump with photography. "<sigh> the world is boring, there's nothing to photograph that hasn't been done." When I get that feeling I lock myself down to a small area and find the interesting. It could be a room, one face of a building outside, a 10x10' patch of grass, whatever, but it always seems to help.

One of the things I feel best at, is feeling the pace of a scene, and being able to inject something tense into it...because we have all sat at a table, and feels like the players are waiting for the dm to do something, or the dm is waiting for the players to do something, I always temp check/feel the room for pacing, and will mix it up...change the dynamics...can be anything...but whatever it is IT HAS TO CHANGE THE DYNAMIC....the easiest one that most dms do for it, is combat "roll for inititave"    which is always an option...but there are other ones, a twist in circumstance, another npc runs in and tells some dramatic news, one npc kills another npc out of the blue...something BIG that excites the players...these are my bread and butter...used too often can have wacky games, so be careful if you tend to do this alot it can make your games to silly(that is a cost I am willing to pay) as with all of the tips and tricks of dming, just as long as you have a toolbox and know what each tool will do for your game, you will never be at a loss.   Cheers, and good game!

when i read the title and thumbnail, for some reason, my first thought was "oh, a true crime video about a DM Youtuber that became a Murderer for some reason"

The Thumbnail also made it look like that might be the case. xD

This might be one of the best videos for improving as a DM that I’ve seen. These exercises are such a great resource.

This was actually really informative and helpful even as a writer. I feel like it helps both.

The Status Card has had me in thought about it all week. I’ve been driving home from work practicing different NOCs with different cards. And then I was imaging what a suit might denote too. A Heart with high status might be a loving and high self esteem person. A heart with low status may be bit of well meaning and doubtful screw up.

It’s opened up a whole new cast for me. It’s my favorite on this list of amazing exercises.