Any Videos of a Good D&D Session?

[ShadowX]

It often occurs to me that roleplaying is a largely insulated hobby even with the advent of the internet. How does a group even know that their game could be so much better, that their DM is poor, whether from inexperience or something worse, or that the players could contribute more than they do? Usually it requires a participant to have migrated from a different group.

However, imagine a group of new people that are diving into D&D for the first time. Where is the guidance on how to actually play beyond the rules? We would all like to imagine that roleplaying skills comes naturally without instruction, but this isn't true. At the very least it takes much time to understand what makes an exciting and enjoyable game, time that could be mitigated with some proper examples. I think a video of a session would be a great mechanism for accomplishing this goal and I am wondering if anybody has already stumbled across something like this.

 

[Slife]

Hmm... Piratecat's story hour might be a good resource as well. Or nemmerle's (although his game is heavily houseruled)

 

[Thanee]

The Gamers?

j/k

Bye
Thanee

 

[wedgeski]

"No-one can be told what a D&D session is like. They have to see it for themselves."

I would imagine a video of a D&D session would be interminably dull as entertainment, but as a teaching exercise, I agree it would be really useful. A couple of years ago, after decades of playing D&D with the same people, I forced myself to go out and find new groups and DM's to learn from. It worked a treat.

 

[Dragon Snack]

I have to agree that your typcal D&D session would be very boring (since by it's nature it involves lots of thinking and imagination). Add in the fact that there is a camera there for further disruption. Then you have the problem of different ideas about what would make a "good" game session. Yikes!

Sadly, the only way I see it working is if a group of actors (who were actually gamers) got together and wrote out a script of a game session and then 'played' through that. However, all one has to do is look at the laughable attempts that already exsist, from people who were (ostensibly) professionals actually trying to sell RPGs, to see the problems inherent in even that option...

 

[ShadowDenizen]

The guys over at www.rpgmp3.com have put some of their sessions up as audio files. (Don't know of anyplace that does video sessions, unfortunately.)

Additionally, the folks over at Yog-Sothoth have posted their entire entire "Masks of Nyarlathotep" campaign (for Call of Cthulhu) as audio sessions, and are currently working through "Horor on the Orient Express". (Don't have the links handy, but a websearch should find them.)

 

[palleomortis]

I agree with what has already been said, it would be incredibly dull. I can't imagine forcing or even asking my players to watch another group, simply becuase the things that make it fun aren't evident. The thoughts that go through your head and, as it's been said, the imagination is not somthing you can see. For a DM, however, who want's something better, it would be nice. I would much enjoy a video from the DM's point of view, explaining his rolls, calculations, ans reasonings. It would help ME a lot.

And so far as players no knowing the poor quality of their DM, I can back that. I'm not the best DM, or even among the betters. I run the game, and do what little I can, but am not above myself to admit that I could be a LOT better. Wich is kind of sad, as my players have a lot more potential to add to the game than they seem to be allowed to be doing. But for now, I'm just kind of figuring out as I go, wich works, but is rather long and drawn out.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I think a video of a session would be a great mechanism for accomplishing this goal and I am wondering if anybody has already stumbled across something like this.

Voila!

-Hyp.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

The Gamers?

Not a bad choice, actually.

Though in my experience with newbies and game watchers, the watcher actually learns fairly little while watching the game unless the game is extremely well run (ansd probably scripted for watching, too boot). It's better to learn by jumping in and doing.

I think this is because it is hard to separate the in-game and metagame events going on around the table when you aren't the one figuring out your character's actions and rolling the dice.

 

[Meds]

Here's a fun video of Nick Logue (of WotC/Dungeon/Pathfinder/Gamemastery fame) DMing at noisy Gencon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9MWwPi3py4