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"Say their character's name" bro my campaign consists of 5 war clerics that are all named Terry but spelled differently. 😭

I ran my first session with my gf and a couple of our friends. All of us total newbies. Afterwards, the biggest thing they said was that the silly, over-the-top voices I gave to all the NPCs really let them get into their own characters and let go of any nerves they had about roleplaying. I didn’t even realise I was doing anything like that. Really opened my eyes to the role the GM plays outside of the actual gameplay.

another thing I think it's all about that's helped me, is when my players meet a new NPC, I have them tell the NPC their story, their reason for being somewhere, why they're talking with the NPC. I found it helps remind them of the story and their motivations and more importantly: who is paying attention lol gets them more involved instead of me just rambling to myself

I have never had a DM ask me "what does [character name] feel in this moment?". That is one thing I will add to my own DMing style, because it teaches players to think and act like their characters, and that their perspective matters. This works especially well if you can pull from their backstory, which Brennan does all the time in a similar fashion.

Pairing off calling people by character name, asking them how they're feeling, etc... one of the things I find very helpful is occasionally framing the situation when moving to the next Character's turn.

"Glarb, you hear enemy reinforcements coming from down the hall. Ulga just moved into place to intercept them, but your other allies aren't out of the woods yet. John is badly wounded and Knight he's fighting isn't showing signs of fatigue. What do you do?"

It's obviously a lot to do for every player turn but I find it helps bring player attention back in when there's a lot going on or maybe they aren't fully paying attention during someone else's turn, and helps get them thinking in character about what action they're going to take.

On posture and using your hands more etc.  As someone with a theatre background I would advise you to focus more on the energy and enthusiasm you are bringing . Whether you stand or sit on the edge of your seat you are more engaged physically and are more available to use your body and hands etc.  If you are thinking about using your hands you are prone to become more self aware and self conscious instead of more free and able to impulse deal.  The more genuine energy and enthusiasm you take to risk taking to have fun and make a fool of yourself the more the table will feel it’s a safe place to play and take more risks with role playing.  People who play dnd love quoting Monty python and the holy grail etc. If they are encouraged to bring that type of absurdity to the game it will be more fun.  The same works with a darker tone.  The more invested the Dm is they more invested the players will be

Good advice; as a Forever GM since 1977 I've recently realized I've become a bit lax in engagement with my regular weekly group which has been meeting since 1996. I just started a second group at my office, and all my players are complete newbies; I was surprised to see how much more I was engaging with them vs. the "Old Guard", making more eye contact, using different voices, giving running fight commentary during combat, etc.

I'll share one of the highlights of my GM'ing experience regarding a PC's death.

One player decided to chase down a fleeing assassin, and despite the risk, they split off from the party in pursuit (only they and the assassin could fly).  The assassin hid in a shed in outskirts and ambushed the character as they took a peek through the door, firing off a poisoned crossbow bolt and hitting them.  The character was already badly injured so it didn't take long for them to die from the poison without help.  The player was great at roleplaying and their character was an optimistic, friendly, adorable necromancer.  The loss felt at the table was so emotionally devastating they didn't want to continue the game.  I haven't had a game since then that the players were so invested in their characters.

To give this a somewhat happy ending though, I recounted the events leading up to their death and realized I forgot to provide a 50% miss chance (due to cover) to the poisoned bolt that hit them -- we rolled a d20 with anticipation and to all of our relief IT MISSED!  We continued the game for several sessions but ended up shelving it due to scheduling conflicts (the ultimate TTRPG BBEG).

Old feeling: People having to GUESS what the victory fanfare if from. 😢

Possibly the reason people drop off when you pause in a youtube video is that youtube loves to place ad breaks in those suspenseful pauses.

The sweetest sound anyone could ever hear is the sound of their name being said.

Its a sales technique to say the buyers name alot for multiple reasons.

10:55 I participated in competitive speech and debate from middle school through graduating college. The stuff you're talking about is not "psychological BS," it's the basics of non-verbal communication. Over 90% of what people understand from you communication is non-verbal. Things like eye-contact, posture, tone, remembering names, word choice, pauses, aspects of talking that are not strictly the words you're saying, constitute the majority of communication. Sadly, with how chronically online the world is today, people don't know how to do a lot of those things effectively. So I really appreciate you bringing these things up. Don't apologize, they're really important. To your point, "just be yourself" is often the worst advise when it comes to communication because people will use their own understanding when listening to you, so if you just use your personal mode of communication, you're never going to fully express what you're trying to say. You have to enter into the understanding of the people you're talking to.

Something i like to do as a DM (for context, my job is designing and making props for stage plays and local theatre) is to have a “bag of tricks”, which is just a little sack of trinkets that i give to my players to use in roleplay. If they get a rune ring, i have a prop of the one ring from LoTR, and among other things. We also have a little open space in the dnd room where we can physically stand and act out deaths or battle actions as they go

The empathy/investment point is so spot on. I've played under DMs who were callous or actively enjoyed the players failing and it was miserable.

I have been keeping my players engaged with solving the overarching mysteries of the campaign with cutscenes, usually at the end of a session, sometimes at the start. I have them prewritten, but they only happen at specific triggers.  The cut scenes do not answer any questions for them, and usually leave them with more, but while the PCs are oodling around feeling like they aren't making progress in the mystery, the players meta know that they must be doing something right, because they've seen cut scenes of someone mysteriously tracking their party, someone talking vaguely about a prophecy trying to be avoided, a PC background NPC knowing more than they let on and seemingly actually involved in the story somehow, different NPCs they thought were unrelated meeting up and discussing a conspiracy, a scene showing how brutal and dangerous this hag is that cursed the Hexblood player, etc.

My main frustrations with RPGs is the idea "well, the players did something stupid, so I punished them".  Did they really do something stupid or make a bad choice?  Or was it that they didn't fully understand what was happening?
Whenever I think my player is making a bad choice, I always confirm the situation and allow full take-backsies.
"I kill this person that ran away!" "You know that's who you are hired to return alive, right?" "Oh - I forgot about that. A tackle and a few slaps is fine"

That is the end combat sound in ff7

What it's all about: Calling players by their character names is part of my approach. To me, once we're sitting at the table, the players are their characters. I exclusively call them by their characters names. I also stay completely in the world. I don't use real life references. I don't talk about anything that isn't contained in the world and the moment. Put simply: I'm completely immersed and I find that my players usually are too.

What it's all about? I...I don't know...I don't know...I DON'T KNOW!!! runs around screaming