Most Copied Sayings DM's Use To Hook Players

Bard coulnt seduce dragon? How the draconic bloodline sorcerers are made? How is F-in all dragons?

My levels of answers for big asks:

Impossible: As things are now, you won't be able to accomplish this.

Highly Unlikely: you're going to need to roll a 20 to succeed on this

Difficult: There's only one way to find out. Roll-

Unusual: you get the sense that this won't be easy yet it's possible: roll-

I'm fairly sure Abreya only says "what you don't see is" because she's playing to the audience, not the table. most of the time this won't have a positive effect on the table, imho.

Something that I noticed after mainlining lots of Dimension20 and Worlds Beyond Number was Brennan Lee Mulligans use of rhythm and speed in his narration. Its so interesting to see how slowing down, quieting the voice and adding pauses in significant moments dialogue or even narration can really supercharge the immersion!

what i love about the critical roll cast is how they flavor theyre spells to fit theyre caracter. with my group a lot of the time combat just turns into ''i cast this ' ''thats this mutch damage'' is mack him... again" and it makes every battle feel so long boring and repetative.

"Gimme a perception check."
- Every DM that ever did DM

Brian 'Murph' Murphy also asks his players good questions and to describe the finisher. @bonusaction start listening to Naddpod.

My bard succeeded in seducing a dragon. Poor guy really. The dragons mating insticts took over and popped the bard like a waterballoon. The rest of the fight went from fighting a sentient dragon to fighting a dragon in heat berserking, consumed by its hormones and lust.

"What's the plan, (character name)" is my favorite line to use, especially if you raise an eyebrow as you do it.

It's a prompt to get the scene moving that puts your PC in the driver's seat, and it gets your PC back in the headspace of the character and their obstacles.

I was running a session 0 for a group of new players. At the end of their very first combat against 3 bandits, I asked the goliath barbarian "How do you want to do this?" as he was getting the last hit on the last bandit. He described in detail how he was going to punch the bandit through the hole in the wall. What they didn't know was that the bandit captain and 5 other bandits then became alerted. Luckily for them, I legitimately rolled terribly or they would've been wiped

Have a new player doing moon Druid in my campaign. He’s going all out on this selune interest so gonna make it interesting for him. Moonfire and rituals will be a good fit

I'm new to DMing and in my first ever session when a player asked if they can do something, I asked "do you want to?" (in an encouraging way). Works wonderfully on the two players I have rn, they get so creative with things they want to try out.

I would like to say that in essence, everyone at the table is a dungeon master — they drive the story, make decisions and face the consequences. It just so happens that one of the people at the table acts as a referee and makes sure that everyone is having fun without making it less fun for the others. And being that person, who facilitates others to have unforgettable experience by asking them the right questions — is just as unforgettable.

Ha-ha! Great video! These are some really dense and powerful phrases indeed. They're almost like spells, but in real life.

What will you do? You can certainly try. Those come to mind

One of my personal favorites is when a player is looking for something, may it be traps, hidden enemies, or the like, never say, "There isn't anything." Always say, "You don't see anything." That vagueness, especially on a mid roll, can produce paranoia that is absolutely hilarious

Ive seen shrek. He seduces the dragon and your a liar 😂

The problem with 'You can certainly try' is - it's a meme at this point. Using this phrase is like using the name of a famous actor, or movie figure in your game. It takes your players out from their character-headspace into this meta "I see what you did there."
If you are going for that - fine. But maybe you have more success with a similiar phrase that encourages players to let their charaters dare things. "Try it, I want to see what happens." "I am intrigued - go on." Same message but without the weight of meta-knowledge, if you know what I mean.

"...and that's how the Dwarf became stuck in the bag of holding. The DM said that we could try."

"How do you want to do ghis?" Not so much. I tried it to getbthe players into the game, bring them along and let them get creative, I think it works when you're a celebrity player, not a real player.

Does your camera have a high pitched whine

"Do you feel that your character is weakest in their elbow or their shoulder?" Proceeds to describe a character having their hand bonded to the tree of names while their body is blasted away from it due to concussive force as the tree is rent asunder, as their elbow first dislocates then is torn away as their body is forced back.

Brennan really does like for players to feel deeply involved in their character deaths, though he rarely gets the opportunity to dole out full party wipes, because the rolls don't usually go his way and the players have gotten progressively craftier in the ways they screw with him to avoid his setups. That scene comes from one of the very rare instances where the plot demands what amounts to a full party wipe followed by the resurrection of a single character for them to be converted to the "villain's" side. It's really a fascinating way for that plot to develop and ensure that the story told through it will hit the players especially hard, but it's also not something you can do for just any game. Full party wipes are tragic and tend to make players resent the GM, so if you don't have to kill player characters then it's generally best to give them an out. Particularly when the entire party is at risk. Obviously, if the entire party decides to jump up and down on the precipice of death despite your warnings then just let the encounter play out and see what happens. Maybe they'll surprise you and you need to make another big bad because they took down one of them prematurely.

My players are bad at (accidentally) meta-gaming, but I've definitely used "What you don't see is..." before to really play up a dramatic moment during roleplay just to describe harmless pieces of insight or even highlight the impact of a brutal finisher in combat. Small details that gives them an extra moment to shine. The players love the extra details, so it's worked pretty well for me this way without actually spoiling anything.

Without watching the first thing i thought of was "You can certainly try"

Bard: "nat20 to seduce the dragon!"

Dragon: "You have a way with words. I shall employ your service as my personal poet. Adventurers, offer this one up to be part of my hoard and the rest of you may leave with one treasure."

Four word trick: half aren't four words!!!

As both a player and a DM, I love when the "How do you want to do this / kill them?" prompt paints more than the final blow. My favorites are when the player describes their allies' previous turns, setting up the attack, or how the enemy's previous attack or spell was blocked or dodged before retaliation.

My personal favorite was when my very first character (an evocation wizard) was in a spell duel. The foe shot a lightning bolt at me, I used counter spell, then on my turn I cast my own lightning bolt back for the final blow. My DM loved it when I described my character not canceling their bolt, but catching it and firing it back at them. It was such a hype moment for the table that would have been far less cool if the enemy's spell simply "fizzled."

I think my favorite How do you want to do this from Matt… wasn’t in Critical Role. It was on Dimension 20 in the Ravening War. The irony of it being Brennan’s PC being responsible for a bit of the background lore from A Crown of Candy and Brennan’s look of sheer bemusement was *too good*. And Matt was clearly enjoying himself- it may not have been planned but dang if he wasn’t appreciating the meta narrative!

The fact that you keep saying phase instead of phrase is very distracting. In fact at first I thought you said face.

Heh. I've been using "Tell me about it" - or at least my variation for decades now. "How do you finish them off" or something similar.

I loved "What you don't see is...."

never thought to try the "what you don't see is..." I wonder if my players would like this!!! A lot of things unfortuntaely they never get to see the results of their actions due to always being on the run.

I usually tell my players "do your thing"

"You can certainly try" and "How do you want to do this?" is not something new only Matt Mercer invented and everyone else is copying him and thinking it is proves you probably haven't been playing DnD prior to the Critical Role resurgence of it. DMs have been using phrases like that for decades before Critical Role and I am honestly so tired of people comparing everything to only three DMs. Something even Mercer himself has spoken out against doing.

To any DMs who ask their players how to describe how they kill the big bad, no, you're not copying Matt Mercer and no you don't or shouldn't feel like you have to. DM how you want to DM and don't let fanboys like this dink tell you how you should or shouldn't run your game.

Be yourself and do it the way that brings you and your players the most joy and I guarantee you you'll have a good time.

when you master a game.. be unique. develop your own stuff. Use your skills and empathy to find out what works for you and your players. It's easy because all you need is your passion for the game and your human instinct.

Don't ever rely on videos or people who tell you about the hundred most used bla bla bla.

I gotta pat myself on the back for using all these without realizing they're such pillars of DM'ing. Well made vid~~!

Seducing a dragon is a lot less ridiculous than this dm seems to think. Dragons can and often do take humanoid form, and can potentially take any form. Some dragons live among humanoids for many years, having relationships of all kinds. They all have varying reasons for doing this. Some simply enjoy being around their favorite humanoids or are studying them. Others are creating nefarious networks to achieve their conspiratorial goals. So seducing one might be difficult depending on circumstances, but not at all impossible.

I remember my first ever kill in DND had the "How do you wanna do this" moment.

As a bit of background:
I got inserted at lvl 3 into an already established party as a warforged Battlesmith artificer in a homebrew setting.
My first course of action was doing menial task during the group's "Day off" to get a bit of money to buy a weapon.
I first wanted to buy a musket, but those are illegal so I bought a longsword.

We longrest.. but it doesn't fade to black, no, our Dampyr gets attacked and the fight moves out into the hallway of a tavern.

Our Thrikeen is pinned down and bitten down to 1hp, with the vampire missing a punch.
After firebolting and stabbing at him a few times, I attack again, and kill it.
I was very grateful the DM went "How do you wanna do this?" Because it just gives me so much more control over just how my character fights: Stupidly precise and no bullshit.

So naturally I cut down, cut the vampire's head off and stopped the blade fast enough to only leave a tiny scratch in the Thrikeens neck

I always say "would you kindly..." when the roll will have seriously detrimental effects if failed. "Would you kindly roll roll a dexterity save." "Would you kindly make an intelligence save." "Would you kindly make a death save."

Its polite, technically, but it has this malice to it. It telegraphs that whether you're rolling to avoid is gonna hurt.

nah man you honor nat 20s, that bard is seducing the dragon

i just say... OK... and look down at my notes and toss my d100 and look back up to hear the roll... it makes them think everytime that i had already thought about this possibility and had a few outcomes possible (d100) if it came up... it keeps them trying random shit and bassicly writing my story for me

Why would someone with such an obvious speech impediment make content where they have to speak?

Something I'm fond of is noticing when one discipline discovers the lessons of another discipline. In this case, it feels like DMs have discovered one facet of being a grade school teacher. That line and variations of it is such a classic among the teachers I've worked around for 10+ years.

I had my first Session 0 recently. My Wild Mage is ambushed by two Hobgoblins, and I'm not eager to fight. True to my character, I tell them "Look, I don't want any trouble, I'll just grab this artifact, and then I'll go home and you'll go home, and we'll all be happy, all right?" My DM tells me he doesn't like my chances, but let's me Roll Persuasion.
Nat. 20.
Out of character, I jump from my chair and scream "They go home and go to bed!!!" as my DM describes how they shuffle back to their hut after my speech made them realise they have no skin in the game as guards of this magic artifact.
One of the best damn moments I've seen in DnD, and I did it by myself. I love it!

"what you don't see is..." is for theater of the mind RP heavy World of Darkness games and doesn't really work with DnD. Different systems. If you're DMing DnD...DO NOT DO THIS unless you are running an RP heavy game that is focused more on drama than fantasy.

Great tip hidden in there that many DMs miss - a nat 20 does not mean they accomplish what they wanted, it just means the best outcome they could get in that particular circumstance. I see so many people that think a nat 20 means success and that they can do anything al la "I got a nat 20, I persuade the king into believing he is a fish!" No, you may have confused him with your bizarre banter and he does not know how to react, thus giving you time to run, plunge a dagger in his chest, tickle him mercilessly - whatever - but he doesn't just suddenly turn white and say, "my god! I AM a fish!"

I’ll hold my hands up. I’ve been guilty of 3 of these. I don’t fudge my rolls and don’t tell them what’s improvised and what’s not. I’ll try and stop going forward

watch dameon haas dming at smosh..... he uses them all xD

I think you forgot about "Are to sure you want to do that?".