Video Preview: Situation-based D&D
Here's a preview of an upcoming YouTube video on building D&D from situations instead of a series of scenes.
If the video is marked "private" that means I've queued it up for general release and it'll be back in a few days.
Comments (7)
Great Advice! I use this a lot and others should too! Many do.
I use situation-based DMing and I find it extremely freeing. I don't need to worry about forcing my players into a scene that I have in my head, therefore I am less anxious when i'm behind the screen.
I think this is the beating heart behind your methods, Sly. You build the situation, you don’t commit on what path the characters take but you have a couple of paths for them to follow- and you build the game around them as they move through the situation. I have seen that when I try to pigeon-hole my players in my narrative- the fun takes a nosedive. When I relax, know the NPCs and the situation, and place the “stuff”- Clues, NPCs, monsters, items where I think they should be when the players play through, the fun is magnified 10 fold.
Mike I really like the idea of thinking situationally. I have used the Lazy DM method of preparing for my games for a while now. If I am thinking situations do I swap out scenes for situation in the steps of preparation or am I still preparing scenes?
You can. In this case, the "scene" might be the situation. Sometimes it just helps to have a list of the big beats that may come up in the next adventure, though.
Great video Mike. As a new DM I have been thinking situationally, but didn't recognize it as such because I've never heard of this situation v. scene dichotomy. As with many things, defining what something is not, or contrasting it to something else, can help define what it is. Thank you for the new insight.
I love this.