D&D General What are your favorite DM Advice Media?

[Burnside]

I'll check them out. I am always looking for actual in depth reviewers, since most YT reviewers are doing flip throughs without much actual experience with the material.

I totally agree. The reason I like him is that he's extremely thorough and is very familiar with the material before reviewing it.

 

[Thunder Brother]

I consider The Alexandrian's Gamemastery 101 collection of articles to be essential reading for any GM. His youtube channel is also off to a good start.

I generally think WebDM offers good advice for worldbuilding.

I could never get into Angry GM's verbose writing style. Reminds me of why I couldn't finish the first Wheel of Time book.

Matt Colville, Zipperon Disney, and Dael Kingsmill all offer good advice as well.

 

[overgeeked]

Most of the big ones have already been mentioned, but some bear repeating. Seth Skorkowsky for Call of Cthulhu, Traveller, and some general advice. His videos are funny and he tells great stories. If you want videos on running horror and mystery games, check his out. Dungeon Craft is good. Web DM is great. Colville. I cannot stand Angry GM. His schtick is dumb. Sly Flourish can be great. Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master is awesome. Many of his videos are great, though his actual prep videos are sprawling and rambling.

I have come across one YouTuber who has mostly good advice I haven't seen mentioned, How to be a Great GM.

Video picked at random because his channel can't be embedded for some reason...

 

[Burnside]

Hmm, necro but a good one.

Surprised to see only one mention of The Alexandrian. To me, it's by FAR the best, and if I could only pick one, it would be this hands down.

The Alexandrian

Welcome to The Alexandrian!

thealexandrian.net

Absolutely amazing stuff. So much of my approach to running a game is from his blog. He started a YouTube channel recently as well.

His tips on running a sandbox, how to handle mysteries, giving clues, etc are priceless. His blog has been around a long time so there is a wealth of info. This is one of my favorites:

Don’t Prep Plots

If you're GMing a roleplaying game, you should never prep a plot.Everyone's tastes are different. These matters are subjective. What works for one person won't necessarily work for another. Yada

thealexandrian.net

OK, so on your recommendation I just read his review of Rime of the Frostmaiden. It's both accurate and hilarious.

 

[GlassJaw]

I consider The Alexandrian's Gamemastery 101 collection of articles to be essential reading for any GM. His youtube channel is also off to a good start.

I generally think WebDM offers good advice for worldbuilding.

I could never get into Angry GM's verbose writing style. Reminds me of why I couldn't finish the first Wheel of Time book.

Matt Colville, Zipperon Disney, and Dael Kingsmill all offer good advice as well.

100% on the Angry GM. I'm a technical writer/editor professionally and I would make him rewrite his articles and reduce his word count by 50%. Plus the shtick is a bit stale.

 

[mistermakebelieve]

Every stream of actual play I have ever tried (including his) has bored me to tears

I recommend checking out the NeoScum and The Film Reroll podcasts. I always have actual plays on in the background, but those two I listen to actively.

 

[hbarsquared]

Another vote for Adventuring Academy and Brennan Lee Mulligan. Not exactly the best "DM advice," per se, but very insightful about the industry and the culture/philosophy of D&D and TTRPGs.

 

[Brotton Goodfellow]

Hexed Press is newer. He deals mostly with OSR type games, but the advice is applicable no matter what edition you’re running. Same with Bandits Keep.

 

[Scott Christian]

Sorry, didn't have time to read the responses. But GM Tips with Matt Mercer, and later, with Satine Phoenix were both pretty solid. Even as a very experienced DM, it was nice to hear foundation work again.

It's funny, but with some of the other sites, I feel like they begin to hypothesize too much. And with a game where every table is as unique as every player, this type of theoretical game-speak becomes didactic. And worse, much of it is complexity for the sake of readership. I wouldn't call it bragging, but I would call it misguided for those that are trying to teach or explain how to be a good GM.

That is why Mercer and Phoenix's show is very good. It is direct. To the point. Avoids convoluted descriptions. Yet, teaches the same curriculum as many of the others.

 

[aco175]

What, no shameless plug for Enworld. This is the one I look at every day and some of the others are like 1/week.