YouTube stretches like the infinite planes for any gamemaster willing to sift through 31 million channels looking for RPG gems. To save some time, here are d6 RPG channels to inspire and entertain both you and your games.
- Dungeon Craft, run by a long-time designer of AD&D 2nd edition adventures in Dungeon Magazine, combines D&D advice, painting and terrain building, and dips into fiction of interest to gamers into one professionally produced channel. I don’t agree with all of his conclusions, but Professor DM has a long running set of house rules he has developed and discusses at length, including contrasts with how D&D 5E currently does things. Also, his kids sometimes interrupt his filming and his reactions are amusing.
- Mann Shorts is a comedy channel. About half the videos are riffs on D&D adventures in a variety of weird and wondrous settings: D&D: Florida Edition, D&D: 90’s Edition, D&D: Military Edition and more. The format is a DM and three players around a table playing D&D in outlandish locations and times. Sometimes the players exasperate the DM and sometimes he brings down the hammer down on them. Watched in order, there is an ebb and flow of comedic jockeying for power between players and GM as they explore wild versions of D&D. The game plays as if it were a real, serious game but the campaign setting and actions of the DM and players are ridiculous, exaggerated, and often hilarious.
- Matthew Colville (and MCDM for actual plays) is a well-known YouTuber and game designer via kickstarter. His channel started showcasing advice for anyone new to DMing and has evolved into actual plays, more advice, game examples, and even movie reviews of interest to gamers. Matt has played most versions of D&D and leverages some of the best rules of each in his D&D game. His advice is practical and grounded in his play at the table and his design work on his supplements for D&D 5E, video games, and working on RPGs for Last Unicorn Games.
- Runehammer (formerly Drunkens and Dragons) is an ever evolving channel that started out as a lark to discuss D&D while drinking beer (his drinking review of the D&D Dungeon Master’s Guide is something to behold) to terrain crafting and then on to in depth discussion of room design (adventure and encounter crafting) and campaign set up and execution. He then started his own RPG company and concentrated on his own RPG, Index Card RPG, for a while. Now he is back to room design for D&D 5E along with his own home brew rules 5e: HARDCORE MODE. Along the way he has taken deep delves into philosophy, architecture, RPG design and reviews, and more. Runehammer is run by Hankerin Ferinale who combines a personality somewhere between Viking raider, dwarf fighter, and the happy guy as the bar who sings and tells jokes and happens to write and run RPGs. You could easily camp with him and he would the first guy to pick up a stick and fight if a bear attacked your camp.
- Taking 20 is a D&D channel with advice for DMs and players. Cody, the creator, has an approach that is light-hearted even when tackling challenging concepts. He discusses everything from the best adventures to worst that Wizards has put out for 5E to what are the best feats and spells to take. He also discusses gaming etiquette and how to avoid being a pain at the table for other players.
- The Complex Games Apologist (CGA) started his channel defending more complex game systems. He goes in depth in discussing the rules and running campaigns for a variety of settings and systems including Harn, GURPs and Mongoose 2nd Edition Traveller, Modiphius Star Trek, and Hackmaster. He also has videos looking at D&D and Pathfinder 2E and some actual plays. CGA goes deep on several videos with an understanding of both the history of the RPGs he’s discussing and how those RPGs work around a table.
