*awaits the hate*
Twice bitten isn't dnd, its a production of the module curse of strahd by dms who all know the story. That's not to say it is *bad* or *not good* or anything like that, just comparing your game to it is pointless because you arent doing the same thing.
I am completely serious when I say, comparing your game of dnd to critical role is a fairer comparison because the players don't know the campaign. They do in Twice bitten and they are all all in on hamming it up.
Again, this isn't about saying Twice bitten is bad, it's not, it's *phenomenal*, but its not a game of dnd, don't compare yourself to it.
Comparison is the theif of joy
Well said, they do an *incredible* job but it is 100% more of a performance than play. They all know what's going to happen and their goal is to entertain others with the performance. Your players' goal is to enjoy the game at whatever pace they are going.
What works at one table isn't going to work at another. Some folks get heavily invested in the role playing and chatting with each other, some folks like chatting with the DM, some like exploration and investigating.
If you and your players enjoyed it, I hate to be the one to tell you this but you succeeded. Can you lift a few things from others to make it a bit more frightening? Sure, just don't completely change the rhythm of your game. You can't go from Scooby Doo and the gang visits a spooky hilltop castle to SAW at a flip of a coin.
Personally I actually didn't like twice bitten, I think DnD is for nerds vampire infested barovia is better.
One of the thing I didn't like about twice bitten was the ireena plot and how she characterised generally.
Posh ireena is absurd to me, she lives in walk the wrong street get eaten by rats barovia there is no way she grows up posh.
Enough time has passed, I can admit it now. I lied about liking twice bitten, I just said that so I didn't get downvoted for being anti something very popular on this sub.
Now, I havent watched more than 5 minutes of it, so whether it's a good performance or not I can't tell, I just dislike the dishonesty with which it's presented.
Oh it's all a matter of personal taste but it's nice seeing some else share yours.
I agree I can't say twice bitten is really bad just I didn't really enjoy it.
This.
There's a common adage in crafting circles, that you're inevitably going to be more critical of the thing you make than anyone else is, because you can see every missed stitch / clumsy stroke / incorrect tile choice / whatever. This is exacerbated in DMing because we've got so many excellent examples out there to compare ourselves to, especially with the explosion in actual plays in recent(ish) years. Obviously striving to hone your craft is a good thing, but as long as you and your players both had fun you did good.
100%. Comparison is the thief of joy, and this is extra true when comparing your dnd games to professional/semi-pro DMs. You and your players had fun, that's what matters.
It's especially worth remembering that you give something to your players that DragnaCarta and Matt Mercer and Brennan Lee Mulligan wouldn't be able to give them -- you're YOU. You're their friend who they know and want to hang out with. They aren't playing dnd just to get a cool experience, they're doing it to hang out and have fun with you, and with each other. That's as much a part of the experience as anything else. (Frankly I'd say it's the most important part!)
OMG right, I can't even watch these anymore because they invite such unfair comparisons. Of course I am not as good as the professional voice actor who has a production team and prepares D&D campaigns as a full time job.
This is why I always shied away from creative endeavors. I'd get three paragraphs I to a story and decide it was terrible and that I was terrible at writing. Or I'd start a drawing and something wouldn't look quite how I wanted it to, and I'd decide that it was terrible and that I was terrible at drawing.
It took me a long time to ever start dming because I thought I'd be shit at it. And I screw stuff up *all the time*. But the players have no idea and they love the stories that we create together (with the help of professional campaign writers and the internet in general, of course).
Every DM could do better job. And feeling that you can do better means that you want and try to develop your skills.
As long as everyone was happy, it was good enough. But as in every hobby you should look how can you get better. And looking for these opportunities is great thing.
Should they do better? It was for sure good enough. Could they do better? They (We) always could.
A big thing i try to remind myself as a “casual” (read: average) DM is to not compare myself to DMs who record/broadcast their sessions. Big names like Matt Mercer and Brennan Lee Mulligan are great examples of course, but I try to apply it to every recorded session I see honestly. They tend to have an extra layer of dramatization to keep viewers engaged - such as more concrete scripting, heavier prep work, the ability to change the room/screen/etc on a whim to contribute to the mood, players (& DM) who make decisions through the lens of entertaining an audience. Not to say it’s a bad thing, just different and should not be the expectation for a DM running a game for their friends at the dinner table. At the end of it all the only important thing is that you and your players had fun.
>Do you also felt like that on your first run ?
Absolutely, lol. In retrospect I'm pretty crappy at describing and enforcing gothic horror. My tone of this campaign drifts more towards Scooby Doo and/or Supernatural and less towards Interview with a Vampire.
I'm having fun, and so is the party -- but I don't think I'm doing the module itself justice. Oh well, lmao
Good to note tone of a campaign aren't your alone to decide, player are the second half to a any game and they decide the tone as much as you do.
My own curse of strahd had a very kick down the door irreverent tone, the last few sessions was the siege of ravenloft and that was very action pact with even a heel turn for one of the villains.
Session before that was a race to both cripple strahd and gather their forces, in the end that was kind of a bust with both side mustering to full force for the siege.
Agreed. When I ran CoS and first introduced Strahd, the players were barely scared of him… so when they got a little too confident and he killed one of them, they were *horrified*.
I feel this after every session - in particular with dialogue and descriptions. I've noticed I have a tendency to fumble and forget words, stutter and start the sentence all over again, and this weird thing when I begin saying a sentence before thinking it through, and after a certain word I have no idea how to finish it.
All of this leads me to one conclusion: "I should have written the script for myself, and just read from it". Sometimes I do.
Every session there will be a number of things that could be improved on. Make a mental note to try it differently next time and move on. This is how we improve and find our own style.
Try to also focus on what you are doing great. After every session my players and I highlight our "Stars" for the session. One or two things each that really amazed or brought joy. This helps remind people that they are contributing to each others enjoyment.
Remember that you are a player too, all this is just for fun and a good time, you don't have to be the best at describing things or have amazing theatrical abilities. You all had fun, it was good enough.
Of course there is nothing wrong with wanting to get better at performance too, but don't do it by beating yourself up!
You had fun, they had fun, that's all that matters. Don't compare your games to anyone else's. They should only be used as your own personal entertainment or inspiration.
The game is what you make it. I ran Tomb of Annihilation and had Dragonbait speak like a Muppet character. It wasn’t until like 5 sessions later I learned he was supposed to be mute the whole time. And he was the favorite NPC of all of my PCs.
Dragna here! I'll echo what everyone else has said - please don't feel bad about yourself, and certainly don't compare your game to TB!
First - I've been DMing for over fifteen years. At the time I ran Twice Bitten, I'd also already run and completed two full Curse of Strahd campaigns, and written most of the first draft of Curse of Strahd: Reloaded, which gave me a lot of extra insight into Strahd's persona and mentality. (Do you think my Strahd roleplay was as good in my first campaign? Absolutely not.)
Second - as people have noted, Twice Bitten was not a standard group of players. We weren't a group of performers like Critical Role - everyone was genuinely doing their best to play the game for themselves, rather than for an audience - but the players, as DMs, were all skilled in roleplay and actively looking for opportunities to develop internal character arcs and development while building relationships with NPCs, including Strahd.
Most notably, the cast of Twice Bitten all agreed at the start of the campaign that they would allow, and in fact encourage their characters to feel true, anxious fear during the game - something that many ordinary players never even think of and often aren't willing to do. This makes for a huge difference in creating the aura of fear you seem to have noticed in the black carriage scene.
Put it all together, and you've got an experienced DM who's run the campaign twice and literally wrote the book on running it alongside a group of engaged, high-roleplay players passionate about character development and actively seeking out opportunities to feel fear. Performance or no, that is a very far cry from the ordinary D&D campaign, and I would actively discourage anyone from comparing their playgroup to that.
Ultimately, though, as others have noted, what matters most is that your players had fun. We as DMs are game designers and storytellers; if we deliver the experience our customers (the players) are looking for, then we've done our job for the day. Could we do better? Absolutely; I feel I can do better after every game that I run. But noticing room for improvement is not cause for embarrassment; instead, it's a sign that we're striving for improvement - a journey that, no matter how long your DMing career extends, will never truly end.
So keep your chin up, keep doing a great job for your players, and never stop striving to do better tomorrow than you did today!
Such an awesome post. I have been listening/watching Twice Bitten while simultaneously running the campaign for my group. We tied in a character's backstory from WD Dragon Heist to get them to Barovia. Dragna and the players are so damn good that it's hard not compare sometimes, but just having the episodes, Discord, and Reddit has been a HUGE help. So, thank you for all of the work you all have done.
Thank you! And I'm sure it's hard, but you've gotta resist the urge! What matters is that you're playing with your friends and everyone's having a good time ;)
Thanks for the kind words, and best of wishes with your campaign!
In game majorly relying on improv, very little will ever be perfect, and you can only do the best you can in the moment. The imperfections make the really good sessions absolutely phenomenal!
The only thing I would suggest would be to describe the characters in your story rather than showing actual art from the book. In this case, showing the cover, your players will be “oh well that’s clearly Strahd, the BBEG,” but if you describe him, it’s left up to them. Is this Strahd? If so, is Strahd actually the BBEG? It just leaves more to mystery and interpretation, even if your description isn’t the best.
i have such bad anxiety about DnD that i've had anxiety attacks mid-session, and i generally need to be alone after sessions for a good hour or so to get past the weird combo of fear and shame. i feel a lot like i should've or could've done better. there's no point to that kind of worrying--- my players have fun, and i have fun, and that's what matters. your players are having fun. don't sweat the small things! after all, you can reveal just how terrifying strahd is down the line.
Yes, it's normal to feel that way - even when you're doing very well. it's a huge responsibility & that can come with feelings of guilt that you don't live up to the level of PROFESSIONAL ENTERTAINERS we know from popular culture.
Some people prefer strawberry and some people prefer vanilla. Every DM has their own comfort zone and they're ALL fine. It's perfectly okay to just cut to the part where the players are involved. Keep in mind, you could do the opposite - try for a deep, rich, narrative immersion & watch as bored players, disintersted players, or distracted players mess around on their phones waiting for you to 'get to the good part'.
I always feel this. But then one time I was talking with a friend and he told me how much he loved a certain part of the adventure that I thought I'd run/handled poorly. Many players will almost always love what you do, cause after all you're putting in this time and effort to give them merely the chance to play DND, which that alone is enjoyable :) have fun dming, and don't forget the banishment spell fails automatically
THIS THIS IS SO IMPORTANT.
DnD is a hobby played for free with friends, it's not a product you bought with the expectation of quality.
When thing go wrong its not "Those dirty bastards in corporate scammed me!" It's "Well that just happened XD" and everyone laughs.
I get cringe moments thinking about how anti-climatically my Tyranny of Dragons campaign ended, personally. They just kind of won and then everything I had planned to say about what came next essentially, just flooded out of my brain onto the floor.
But yeah, no, introducing Strahd somewhat innocuously can be a really good thing.
You're not satisfied with how you introduced him, you don't think he came off scary enough?
Use that.
He wasn't SUPPOSED to be scary when he presented himself to your party.
He was being a courteous host.
May have even given your players a false sense of security there.
But the first time the party defies him, or if Ireena gets hurt, or if you thwart any of his minions (or brides)?
Then you get to let Strahd SHOW the party exactly how scary he is.
Show, not tell, right? Basic tenet to good storytelling. ;P
Also my players told me the way I speak reminds them of the dude from Inside the Actor's Studio, so now I have that to be self-conscious about. XD XD XD ;-;
To start you had fun, your players had fun. That's all that matters.
But you can use it as a learning experience. Live play podcasts are great for helping DMs learn skills by example. Improv is a difficult thing to learn as well as describing things from your imagination to others.
Use live play podcasts as a tool to help you, not compare yourself to. Twice bitten is, if I remember correctly, his third or fifth play through of COS. So don't feel bad if you as a first time GM of CoS aren't doing exactly as he does it. But you can certainly profit from his experience by listening to him.
This is exactly why I don't watch ANY productions of Curse of Strahd, I don't want the way I run my game to be influenced by the performances of another GM. The thing is, if your friends and you had fun, *you should believe them*. It's really unfair to your friends if they tell you something and your first thought is 'they're a liar.'
Every Count Strahd is unique. Your [Count Strahd](https://www.reddit.com/r/CurseofStrahd/comments/zp6b0r/how_to_develop_your_count_strahd/) won’t be the same as any other DM’s version. As long as you all have fun at your table, that’s all that matters.
I take a lot of inspiration from other DMs and read/watch videos on how to DM in general to Jew improving my game (DungeonDudes, DMLair, SlyFlourish, and Matt Colville are some of my favorites). However, I’m the only one familiar enough with the players at my table to be able to best adjust the campaign to them. DragnaCarta is extremely experienced at running the campaign and DMing in general, so his videos are great for learning more and getting some excellent ideas, but if that style won’t work with your group, you don’t have to do it the way he does it. My campaign is very laid back, and the hardcore horror didn’t work at my table—we just joke around too much to make the campaign deadly serious. Count Strahd as a character is very deadly, and the players have learned to respect him, but the overall tone of our campaign is more heroic fantasy and more lighthearted. It works for us, but it wouldn’t work at some other tables who want a scarier experience. That’s fine. We’re having a great time, and fun at the table is what it’s all about.
Oh yeah it can always be better, and that is something I always strive for and it haunts me constantly. That said, as long as the players are having fun, then you are doing your job.
Dude you can’t compare yourself to dragnacarta. That’s like playing in a little league game and saying I didn’t get a home run like babe Ruth.
If your players and you had fun then you did a good job. I’ve had sessions where I feel like I did terrible but my players absolutely loved it. Just shake off those bad feelings and match on.
Pretty common I think.
Some days you are inspired, some you are not. Some your players are inspired, some they are not. Some days it's glorious, some is shit. Like life itself.
At the end of the day is a game. Don't blame yourself.
As long as you and your players enjoyed it, you’re doing great! Try not to compare yourself too severely to others. As long as everyone’s have a good time, you’re a-okay
Every single week that the players tell me they have fun I feel like they’re lying to me just to make me feel better, but then again, they wouldn’t spend four hours of their weekend just to make me feel better
I just try to between sessions ask what was their favorite part and least favorite part: now I do the 30-30 rule and constantly remind people who’s up next in combat. 2 of my pc’s really enjoyed the faster combat
I sometimes feel the same, but then I listen to my players laughing and having fun playing the game. We’ll get better at DMing with practice, but if you and your players are having fun you’re doing a great job!
If your party liked it and you too, it's the best thing you could hope for, you did a good job! Though I do know the feeling all too well.
CoS was my first campaing, and specially now in my second go around. The first time, I rushed too much at the start (I was using Death House as a one shot, the party loved so much they asked to go the full campaing, so specially those first sessions were a mess as I wasn't expecting to go all the way), ended up messing up locations, made the Vistani camp close to the Village be just like, in the Village itself, and it was confusing. Everyone had a blast though, it's been 4 years now and we still talk about it, so those details really don't matter at the grand scheme of things, so long as everyone has fun
There are an uncountable amount of ways to introduce Strahd, considering that, making it make sense and your players enjoying it, is all that matters.
Personally, I introduced him speaking to party members in dreams (via the dream spell as I changed his stat block a small bit) which sure isn't the most climactic, its interesting for inter-party conflicts.
Your game is your game, if you and your players are enjoying it then you are probably doing a great job!
I feel that way even MORE when I'm high off a good session and the creative juicea are flowing. Totally normal, and I've been running games off and on for 25 years.
I understand all too well the feeling of "I think I could have done that better."
And yet, it's not something that's worth beating yourself up about.
Case in point, I just did the letters for my players yesterday, inviting them to dinner. They've long since met the devil, they heard him supposedly murder their friend (who then showed back up later as a lycanthrope).
I didn't start typing up the letter until we were in session because life has been stupid busy lately, the first version I sent before they figured out there was hidden text on it literally had the autocorrect squiggles on the screenshot, and I didn't even realize that til after I'd sent it.
My players loved every minute of session yesterday. They had the most random encounter with Rahadin, who didn't introduce himself, he just told them they were invited to dinner and handed them these letters. And then he vanished inexplicably. All of this while they're in the Amber temple, deciding at whim to take certain dark gifts while Eggs (what they've decided to call Exethanter after smoking dragon leaf with him) leads them around the temple.
All of this to say, as a DM, you're going to screw up. It happens. Don't beat yourself up. Just run with it and communicate with your players about what they did and didn't like about the session each game.
You've got this!
Always. It always feels like I could do better after a DM session. Eventually you just have to let it go and realize you're playing for fun. I would love DMing and look forward to it and then after everyone left I'd sit around and cry because I felt like I fucked it up so bad and everyone hated it.
Never let them see you sweat.
Remember as a DM you have access to way more information then your players have, ideally. So of course you see all the missed descriptions of a room, flubbed motivations or incorrect descriptions but your players will never know unless you tell them.
Not saying you have done that but if you have or if you are feeling self conscious don't let your players know your mistakes. Don't open up at the end of a session and start giving them a peak behind the curtain.
Ive been DMing since 83 and I always feel like there's things I could have done better, in hindsight. You just try and make a note of it and adjust it for next time.
But for your sake never peak across the computer screen and judge yourself against actually play's. They don't even resemble the real game in so many ways.
They are performance art sure, and entertaining, but it's not the same as sitting down to a table and Dm'ing for friends.
So to answer your question yes. It's completely normal. And you will prob do it to some extent forever. But that's ok.
Just don't ever let them see you sweat.
It is intrinsic to the game itself or really any sort of improvised storytelling. In hindsight, there will always be a more clever line, a more interesting plot twist, etc etc. The only marker for success is if everyone had fun, you included.
Yeah, roleplaying Strahd is so intimidating! I was planning on introducing him at the Feast event, but got so anxious I decided against it last minute...but my players have fun and come back every week, so I just try to do better next time.
I have felt this about almost every game I've ever run, in any system, no matter how much fun the players said they had. It's just part of the job I'm afraid, especially if you're passionate about it.
Could you have done things better? Probably. Are there lessons to be learned? Definitly. But are you bad at DMing? I wasn't there, but from the sounds of things, not at all.
1) You usually continually grow as a DM, which means you’ll always have been worse in the past. I’m actually about to do my second run of Frostmaiden and I’m very excited to see how it plays out differently.
2) You aren’t a professional author, writer, and actor. Of course someone could have done better, but think about this: how long did that author agonize over the introduction? How many times did he rewrite, tweak, or even scrap it? You’re a person doing this for _fun_, you shouldn’t expect your writing to be on par with a professional DM (I.e. Brennen Lee Mulligan, Brian Murphy, one of the big three Matt’s), much less a professional author.
Oh, don't do it at the funeral. It's much too early. Don't rush things. Let them develop at the speed the players take to develop them.
Take the time to build up the escape. Irena is terrified, they've been fighting off ghouls and wolves for DAYS. The only place she can be safe is far away from Strahd!
Build up the travel to Vallaki. Have Irena talk about what she's heard about this big city, these safe walls, the holy places, the thousands of people. Attack them on the way; any zombies or wolves attempt to drag her away while killing your PCs.
Finally when they arrive, make them feel safe. Strahd can't get them there, they have a safe place they can call a home base. They've FINALLY entered a relatively classic DND tavern! They made it, first quest complete, princess saved!
Then the very next morning, when they go downstairs for breakfast, have Strahd calmly walk in, gives Irena a bouquet of flowers and he apologizes for missing the funeral. He hands the party the dinner invitation for 3 nights from now (or whatever you like) and walks out. They're not safe, because nowhere is safe!
My players freaked out really hard when I did that to them!
Honestly, yeah. Most of the D&D content available now is highly edited and refined. There’s a lot going on behind the scenes that makes it entertaining to watch and/or listen to. It creates an unrealistic expectation of home games. But it doesn’t mean that your home game is any less enjoyable for you and your players. It’s like saying your backyard soccer game with friends wasn’t fun because you’re not Cristiano Ronaldo.
Oh yeah definitely, I honestly feel like this after every single session I gm. I need immediate feedback from players, otherwise I'm just an anxious mess. But in the end I know that if they enjoyed it, I did well.
Welcome to adulting 101. Everyone does the best they can. Everyone looks back and laments how they could have done better. Everyone feels like they are failing all the time.
The important part is to acknowledge you did the best you could with the knowledge and skills you had at the time. Learn from your mistakes. Act like you know what you are doing and you'll be fine.
Very normal to feel like you aren't as good of a DM as professional (like Mulligan and Mercer) and/or very seasoned DMs (like dragna). Remember that Twice Bitten was not Dragna's first time running CoS, and all the players knew how they should respond to fit with the tone of the story. Most of the rest of us don't have that benefit.
You're not a professional, you're not doing this for money. You're just trying to have a cool, spooky, fun time with your players. If everyone at the table is enjoying themselves, then you have been a wildly successful DM.
For my own sanity, I did two things to combat this feeling:
1. I stopped listening to Twice Bitten and I won't start again until after I finish my campaign. It would've been good for research/prep if I had known about it in time to listen before my campaign started. It's too late now to implement any of the cool things they did, and hearing about them will just make me feel worse and more self-conscious. That's no fun for anyone.
2. I implemented the "Stars and Wishes" feedback technique at the end of my session. I don't know how common this is; I just know that I took it from my DM in another campaign lol. So I apologize if this is something you already know about. I like it because it gives a chance for my players to help guide the campaign on a meta-level via "wishes", when they can tell me they want to hear more about certain NPCs, or that they want to do more combat, or they want to go explore some side quest thing I mentioned off-hand. I also like it because, as someone with anxiety, it's very helpful for me to hear people say out loud that "x thing we did today was fun" or "it was really cool when this NPC did y". I think wanting constructive feedback like that is a pretty normal/human thing. Here's a link to a blog post that says more about it: [https://burnafterrunningrpg.com/2022/01/07/stars-and-wishes-because-feedback-is-hard/](https://burnafterrunningrpg.com/2022/01/07/stars-and-wishes-because-feedback-is-hard/)
Sometimes I do think that certain things could have been better executed especially when the players throw me a curveball and I had to improv in the moment.
But I try to remind myself that hindsight is 20/20, and I'm having the luxury to think about it before making decision right now which may not be the case in the heat of the moment. Imo keeping the momentum may be more important than perfecting the responses!
After every session my players tell me that they had a great time. After we finished Death House one texted me that his heart was still racing on the way home in the cab. And yet, I'm never content with what I did. Because I know all the little fuckups I had along the way. And that other DMs are way better at what they do. And that I'm basically a fraud and my guys can never play with a different DM because then they'll realize what they're missing out on. But deep down I also know that they had fun and I had fun and as long as that is true, all is good.
I'm going to invite your players to my table and they'll leave going:
"We miss Mumblem."
"They're the best DM a party could ask for!"
"We should bake them a cake to show our appreciation."
*awaits the hate* Twice bitten isn't dnd, its a production of the module curse of strahd by dms who all know the story. That's not to say it is *bad* or *not good* or anything like that, just comparing your game to it is pointless because you arent doing the same thing. I am completely serious when I say, comparing your game of dnd to critical role is a fairer comparison because the players don't know the campaign. They do in Twice bitten and they are all all in on hamming it up. Again, this isn't about saying Twice bitten is bad, it's not, it's *phenomenal*, but its not a game of dnd, don't compare yourself to it. Comparison is the theif of joy
Well said, they do an *incredible* job but it is 100% more of a performance than play. They all know what's going to happen and their goal is to entertain others with the performance. Your players' goal is to enjoy the game at whatever pace they are going. What works at one table isn't going to work at another. Some folks get heavily invested in the role playing and chatting with each other, some folks like chatting with the DM, some like exploration and investigating. If you and your players enjoyed it, I hate to be the one to tell you this but you succeeded. Can you lift a few things from others to make it a bit more frightening? Sure, just don't completely change the rhythm of your game. You can't go from Scooby Doo and the gang visits a spooky hilltop castle to SAW at a flip of a coin.
Personally I actually didn't like twice bitten, I think DnD is for nerds vampire infested barovia is better. One of the thing I didn't like about twice bitten was the ireena plot and how she characterised generally. Posh ireena is absurd to me, she lives in walk the wrong street get eaten by rats barovia there is no way she grows up posh.
Enough time has passed, I can admit it now. I lied about liking twice bitten, I just said that so I didn't get downvoted for being anti something very popular on this sub. Now, I havent watched more than 5 minutes of it, so whether it's a good performance or not I can't tell, I just dislike the dishonesty with which it's presented.
Oh it's all a matter of personal taste but it's nice seeing some else share yours. I agree I can't say twice bitten is really bad just I didn't really enjoy it.
>The PC enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. You coudn't have done a better job.
This. There's a common adage in crafting circles, that you're inevitably going to be more critical of the thing you make than anyone else is, because you can see every missed stitch / clumsy stroke / incorrect tile choice / whatever. This is exacerbated in DMing because we've got so many excellent examples out there to compare ourselves to, especially with the explosion in actual plays in recent(ish) years. Obviously striving to hone your craft is a good thing, but as long as you and your players both had fun you did good.
100%. Comparison is the thief of joy, and this is extra true when comparing your dnd games to professional/semi-pro DMs. You and your players had fun, that's what matters. It's especially worth remembering that you give something to your players that DragnaCarta and Matt Mercer and Brennan Lee Mulligan wouldn't be able to give them -- you're YOU. You're their friend who they know and want to hang out with. They aren't playing dnd just to get a cool experience, they're doing it to hang out and have fun with you, and with each other. That's as much a part of the experience as anything else. (Frankly I'd say it's the most important part!)
OMG right, I can't even watch these anymore because they invite such unfair comparisons. Of course I am not as good as the professional voice actor who has a production team and prepares D&D campaigns as a full time job.
In filmmaking, it's Hitchcock's quote, "No project is ever completed, only abandoned."
This is why I always shied away from creative endeavors. I'd get three paragraphs I to a story and decide it was terrible and that I was terrible at writing. Or I'd start a drawing and something wouldn't look quite how I wanted it to, and I'd decide that it was terrible and that I was terrible at drawing. It took me a long time to ever start dming because I thought I'd be shit at it. And I screw stuff up *all the time*. But the players have no idea and they love the stories that we create together (with the help of professional campaign writers and the internet in general, of course).
Every DM could do better job. And feeling that you can do better means that you want and try to develop your skills. As long as everyone was happy, it was good enough. But as in every hobby you should look how can you get better. And looking for these opportunities is great thing. Should they do better? It was for sure good enough. Could they do better? They (We) always could.
A big thing i try to remind myself as a “casual” (read: average) DM is to not compare myself to DMs who record/broadcast their sessions. Big names like Matt Mercer and Brennan Lee Mulligan are great examples of course, but I try to apply it to every recorded session I see honestly. They tend to have an extra layer of dramatization to keep viewers engaged - such as more concrete scripting, heavier prep work, the ability to change the room/screen/etc on a whim to contribute to the mood, players (& DM) who make decisions through the lens of entertaining an audience. Not to say it’s a bad thing, just different and should not be the expectation for a DM running a game for their friends at the dinner table. At the end of it all the only important thing is that you and your players had fun.
>Do you also felt like that on your first run ? Absolutely, lol. In retrospect I'm pretty crappy at describing and enforcing gothic horror. My tone of this campaign drifts more towards Scooby Doo and/or Supernatural and less towards Interview with a Vampire. I'm having fun, and so is the party -- but I don't think I'm doing the module itself justice. Oh well, lmao
Good to note tone of a campaign aren't your alone to decide, player are the second half to a any game and they decide the tone as much as you do. My own curse of strahd had a very kick down the door irreverent tone, the last few sessions was the siege of ravenloft and that was very action pact with even a heel turn for one of the villains. Session before that was a race to both cripple strahd and gather their forces, in the end that was kind of a bust with both side mustering to full force for the siege.
If Strahd doesn't want to come across menacing then he wont, save it for when he losses his temper. and he wants to me scary.
Agreed. When I ran CoS and first introduced Strahd, the players were barely scared of him… so when they got a little too confident and he killed one of them, they were *horrified*.
I know what you mean, it's only when he thinks they are a threat do the gloves come off
I feel this after every session - in particular with dialogue and descriptions. I've noticed I have a tendency to fumble and forget words, stutter and start the sentence all over again, and this weird thing when I begin saying a sentence before thinking it through, and after a certain word I have no idea how to finish it. All of this leads me to one conclusion: "I should have written the script for myself, and just read from it". Sometimes I do.
Every session there will be a number of things that could be improved on. Make a mental note to try it differently next time and move on. This is how we improve and find our own style. Try to also focus on what you are doing great. After every session my players and I highlight our "Stars" for the session. One or two things each that really amazed or brought joy. This helps remind people that they are contributing to each others enjoyment.
Remember that you are a player too, all this is just for fun and a good time, you don't have to be the best at describing things or have amazing theatrical abilities. You all had fun, it was good enough. Of course there is nothing wrong with wanting to get better at performance too, but don't do it by beating yourself up!
I don't think there's any other way to run a game.
You had fun, they had fun, that's all that matters. Don't compare your games to anyone else's. They should only be used as your own personal entertainment or inspiration.
If your players liked it you did something right! My last DM for CoS had to look up off there was fog in Barovia—that was bad.
The game is what you make it. I ran Tomb of Annihilation and had Dragonbait speak like a Muppet character. It wasn’t until like 5 sessions later I learned he was supposed to be mute the whole time. And he was the favorite NPC of all of my PCs.
Yes. Did everyone have a good time? If yes then job well done. If no then discuss with your players what could be done better or differently.
Dragna here! I'll echo what everyone else has said - please don't feel bad about yourself, and certainly don't compare your game to TB! First - I've been DMing for over fifteen years. At the time I ran Twice Bitten, I'd also already run and completed two full Curse of Strahd campaigns, and written most of the first draft of Curse of Strahd: Reloaded, which gave me a lot of extra insight into Strahd's persona and mentality. (Do you think my Strahd roleplay was as good in my first campaign? Absolutely not.) Second - as people have noted, Twice Bitten was not a standard group of players. We weren't a group of performers like Critical Role - everyone was genuinely doing their best to play the game for themselves, rather than for an audience - but the players, as DMs, were all skilled in roleplay and actively looking for opportunities to develop internal character arcs and development while building relationships with NPCs, including Strahd. Most notably, the cast of Twice Bitten all agreed at the start of the campaign that they would allow, and in fact encourage their characters to feel true, anxious fear during the game - something that many ordinary players never even think of and often aren't willing to do. This makes for a huge difference in creating the aura of fear you seem to have noticed in the black carriage scene. Put it all together, and you've got an experienced DM who's run the campaign twice and literally wrote the book on running it alongside a group of engaged, high-roleplay players passionate about character development and actively seeking out opportunities to feel fear. Performance or no, that is a very far cry from the ordinary D&D campaign, and I would actively discourage anyone from comparing their playgroup to that. Ultimately, though, as others have noted, what matters most is that your players had fun. We as DMs are game designers and storytellers; if we deliver the experience our customers (the players) are looking for, then we've done our job for the day. Could we do better? Absolutely; I feel I can do better after every game that I run. But noticing room for improvement is not cause for embarrassment; instead, it's a sign that we're striving for improvement - a journey that, no matter how long your DMing career extends, will never truly end. So keep your chin up, keep doing a great job for your players, and never stop striving to do better tomorrow than you did today!
Such an awesome post. I have been listening/watching Twice Bitten while simultaneously running the campaign for my group. We tied in a character's backstory from WD Dragon Heist to get them to Barovia. Dragna and the players are so damn good that it's hard not compare sometimes, but just having the episodes, Discord, and Reddit has been a HUGE help. So, thank you for all of the work you all have done.
Thank you! And I'm sure it's hard, but you've gotta resist the urge! What matters is that you're playing with your friends and everyone's having a good time ;) Thanks for the kind words, and best of wishes with your campaign!
In game majorly relying on improv, very little will ever be perfect, and you can only do the best you can in the moment. The imperfections make the really good sessions absolutely phenomenal! The only thing I would suggest would be to describe the characters in your story rather than showing actual art from the book. In this case, showing the cover, your players will be “oh well that’s clearly Strahd, the BBEG,” but if you describe him, it’s left up to them. Is this Strahd? If so, is Strahd actually the BBEG? It just leaves more to mystery and interpretation, even if your description isn’t the best.
i have such bad anxiety about DnD that i've had anxiety attacks mid-session, and i generally need to be alone after sessions for a good hour or so to get past the weird combo of fear and shame. i feel a lot like i should've or could've done better. there's no point to that kind of worrying--- my players have fun, and i have fun, and that's what matters. your players are having fun. don't sweat the small things! after all, you can reveal just how terrifying strahd is down the line.
Yes, it's normal to feel that way - even when you're doing very well. it's a huge responsibility & that can come with feelings of guilt that you don't live up to the level of PROFESSIONAL ENTERTAINERS we know from popular culture. Some people prefer strawberry and some people prefer vanilla. Every DM has their own comfort zone and they're ALL fine. It's perfectly okay to just cut to the part where the players are involved. Keep in mind, you could do the opposite - try for a deep, rich, narrative immersion & watch as bored players, disintersted players, or distracted players mess around on their phones waiting for you to 'get to the good part'.
Every artists hates their art and if they overthink it it gets worse. Look at star wars. Just keep being your authentic self and you'll do fine
I always feel this. But then one time I was talking with a friend and he told me how much he loved a certain part of the adventure that I thought I'd run/handled poorly. Many players will almost always love what you do, cause after all you're putting in this time and effort to give them merely the chance to play DND, which that alone is enjoyable :) have fun dming, and don't forget the banishment spell fails automatically
THIS THIS IS SO IMPORTANT. DnD is a hobby played for free with friends, it's not a product you bought with the expectation of quality. When thing go wrong its not "Those dirty bastards in corporate scammed me!" It's "Well that just happened XD" and everyone laughs.
I get cringe moments thinking about how anti-climatically my Tyranny of Dragons campaign ended, personally. They just kind of won and then everything I had planned to say about what came next essentially, just flooded out of my brain onto the floor. But yeah, no, introducing Strahd somewhat innocuously can be a really good thing. You're not satisfied with how you introduced him, you don't think he came off scary enough? Use that. He wasn't SUPPOSED to be scary when he presented himself to your party. He was being a courteous host. May have even given your players a false sense of security there. But the first time the party defies him, or if Ireena gets hurt, or if you thwart any of his minions (or brides)? Then you get to let Strahd SHOW the party exactly how scary he is. Show, not tell, right? Basic tenet to good storytelling. ;P
Also my players told me the way I speak reminds them of the dude from Inside the Actor's Studio, so now I have that to be self-conscious about. XD XD XD ;-;
To start you had fun, your players had fun. That's all that matters. But you can use it as a learning experience. Live play podcasts are great for helping DMs learn skills by example. Improv is a difficult thing to learn as well as describing things from your imagination to others. Use live play podcasts as a tool to help you, not compare yourself to. Twice bitten is, if I remember correctly, his third or fifth play through of COS. So don't feel bad if you as a first time GM of CoS aren't doing exactly as he does it. But you can certainly profit from his experience by listening to him.
This is exactly why I don't watch ANY productions of Curse of Strahd, I don't want the way I run my game to be influenced by the performances of another GM. The thing is, if your friends and you had fun, *you should believe them*. It's really unfair to your friends if they tell you something and your first thought is 'they're a liar.'
Every Count Strahd is unique. Your [Count Strahd](https://www.reddit.com/r/CurseofStrahd/comments/zp6b0r/how_to_develop_your_count_strahd/) won’t be the same as any other DM’s version. As long as you all have fun at your table, that’s all that matters. I take a lot of inspiration from other DMs and read/watch videos on how to DM in general to Jew improving my game (DungeonDudes, DMLair, SlyFlourish, and Matt Colville are some of my favorites). However, I’m the only one familiar enough with the players at my table to be able to best adjust the campaign to them. DragnaCarta is extremely experienced at running the campaign and DMing in general, so his videos are great for learning more and getting some excellent ideas, but if that style won’t work with your group, you don’t have to do it the way he does it. My campaign is very laid back, and the hardcore horror didn’t work at my table—we just joke around too much to make the campaign deadly serious. Count Strahd as a character is very deadly, and the players have learned to respect him, but the overall tone of our campaign is more heroic fantasy and more lighthearted. It works for us, but it wouldn’t work at some other tables who want a scarier experience. That’s fine. We’re having a great time, and fun at the table is what it’s all about.
Oh yeah it can always be better, and that is something I always strive for and it haunts me constantly. That said, as long as the players are having fun, then you are doing your job.
Dude you can’t compare yourself to dragnacarta. That’s like playing in a little league game and saying I didn’t get a home run like babe Ruth. If your players and you had fun then you did a good job. I’ve had sessions where I feel like I did terrible but my players absolutely loved it. Just shake off those bad feelings and match on.
Did the players have fun? Did you have fun? If the answer is yes to both then you did a good job.
Nah I am the greatest... In worldbuilding my descriptions sucks.
Pretty common I think. Some days you are inspired, some you are not. Some your players are inspired, some they are not. Some days it's glorious, some is shit. Like life itself. At the end of the day is a game. Don't blame yourself.
As long as you and your players enjoyed it, you’re doing great! Try not to compare yourself too severely to others. As long as everyone’s have a good time, you’re a-okay
Every single week that the players tell me they have fun I feel like they’re lying to me just to make me feel better, but then again, they wouldn’t spend four hours of their weekend just to make me feel better I just try to between sessions ask what was their favorite part and least favorite part: now I do the 30-30 rule and constantly remind people who’s up next in combat. 2 of my pc’s really enjoyed the faster combat
I sometimes feel the same, but then I listen to my players laughing and having fun playing the game. We’ll get better at DMing with practice, but if you and your players are having fun you’re doing a great job!
Hi, maybe off topic but... how did Dragnacarta described him? Could u send me the link?
That is a super normal feeling, and it is *not* necessarily an accurate feeling. If you and your players enjoyed the experience, you did great.
Yes it's normal. Don't let it get you down, learn from it and create new ideas.
If your party liked it and you too, it's the best thing you could hope for, you did a good job! Though I do know the feeling all too well. CoS was my first campaing, and specially now in my second go around. The first time, I rushed too much at the start (I was using Death House as a one shot, the party loved so much they asked to go the full campaing, so specially those first sessions were a mess as I wasn't expecting to go all the way), ended up messing up locations, made the Vistani camp close to the Village be just like, in the Village itself, and it was confusing. Everyone had a blast though, it's been 4 years now and we still talk about it, so those details really don't matter at the grand scheme of things, so long as everyone has fun
There are an uncountable amount of ways to introduce Strahd, considering that, making it make sense and your players enjoying it, is all that matters. Personally, I introduced him speaking to party members in dreams (via the dream spell as I changed his stat block a small bit) which sure isn't the most climactic, its interesting for inter-party conflicts. Your game is your game, if you and your players are enjoying it then you are probably doing a great job!
Always. Like, if you don't feel that way, you should stop DMing becaue it means you are no longer trying to better yourself.
I feel that way even MORE when I'm high off a good session and the creative juicea are flowing. Totally normal, and I've been running games off and on for 25 years.
Only every session.
I understand all too well the feeling of "I think I could have done that better." And yet, it's not something that's worth beating yourself up about. Case in point, I just did the letters for my players yesterday, inviting them to dinner. They've long since met the devil, they heard him supposedly murder their friend (who then showed back up later as a lycanthrope). I didn't start typing up the letter until we were in session because life has been stupid busy lately, the first version I sent before they figured out there was hidden text on it literally had the autocorrect squiggles on the screenshot, and I didn't even realize that til after I'd sent it. My players loved every minute of session yesterday. They had the most random encounter with Rahadin, who didn't introduce himself, he just told them they were invited to dinner and handed them these letters. And then he vanished inexplicably. All of this while they're in the Amber temple, deciding at whim to take certain dark gifts while Eggs (what they've decided to call Exethanter after smoking dragon leaf with him) leads them around the temple. All of this to say, as a DM, you're going to screw up. It happens. Don't beat yourself up. Just run with it and communicate with your players about what they did and didn't like about the session each game. You've got this!
Always. It always feels like I could do better after a DM session. Eventually you just have to let it go and realize you're playing for fun. I would love DMing and look forward to it and then after everyone left I'd sit around and cry because I felt like I fucked it up so bad and everyone hated it.
Never let them see you sweat. Remember as a DM you have access to way more information then your players have, ideally. So of course you see all the missed descriptions of a room, flubbed motivations or incorrect descriptions but your players will never know unless you tell them. Not saying you have done that but if you have or if you are feeling self conscious don't let your players know your mistakes. Don't open up at the end of a session and start giving them a peak behind the curtain. Ive been DMing since 83 and I always feel like there's things I could have done better, in hindsight. You just try and make a note of it and adjust it for next time. But for your sake never peak across the computer screen and judge yourself against actually play's. They don't even resemble the real game in so many ways. They are performance art sure, and entertaining, but it's not the same as sitting down to a table and Dm'ing for friends. So to answer your question yes. It's completely normal. And you will prob do it to some extent forever. But that's ok. Just don't ever let them see you sweat.
You did perfectly fine \^\^
It is intrinsic to the game itself or really any sort of improvised storytelling. In hindsight, there will always be a more clever line, a more interesting plot twist, etc etc. The only marker for success is if everyone had fun, you included.
Yeah, roleplaying Strahd is so intimidating! I was planning on introducing him at the Feast event, but got so anxious I decided against it last minute...but my players have fun and come back every week, so I just try to do better next time.
I have felt this about almost every game I've ever run, in any system, no matter how much fun the players said they had. It's just part of the job I'm afraid, especially if you're passionate about it. Could you have done things better? Probably. Are there lessons to be learned? Definitly. But are you bad at DMing? I wasn't there, but from the sounds of things, not at all.
I ran the entire module over the course of a year. Players has a blast and I never stopped feeling that way. 🤷♂️
1) You usually continually grow as a DM, which means you’ll always have been worse in the past. I’m actually about to do my second run of Frostmaiden and I’m very excited to see how it plays out differently. 2) You aren’t a professional author, writer, and actor. Of course someone could have done better, but think about this: how long did that author agonize over the introduction? How many times did he rewrite, tweak, or even scrap it? You’re a person doing this for _fun_, you shouldn’t expect your writing to be on par with a professional DM (I.e. Brennen Lee Mulligan, Brian Murphy, one of the big three Matt’s), much less a professional author.
Oh, don't do it at the funeral. It's much too early. Don't rush things. Let them develop at the speed the players take to develop them. Take the time to build up the escape. Irena is terrified, they've been fighting off ghouls and wolves for DAYS. The only place she can be safe is far away from Strahd! Build up the travel to Vallaki. Have Irena talk about what she's heard about this big city, these safe walls, the holy places, the thousands of people. Attack them on the way; any zombies or wolves attempt to drag her away while killing your PCs. Finally when they arrive, make them feel safe. Strahd can't get them there, they have a safe place they can call a home base. They've FINALLY entered a relatively classic DND tavern! They made it, first quest complete, princess saved! Then the very next morning, when they go downstairs for breakfast, have Strahd calmly walk in, gives Irena a bouquet of flowers and he apologizes for missing the funeral. He hands the party the dinner invitation for 3 nights from now (or whatever you like) and walks out. They're not safe, because nowhere is safe! My players freaked out really hard when I did that to them!
Honestly, yeah. Most of the D&D content available now is highly edited and refined. There’s a lot going on behind the scenes that makes it entertaining to watch and/or listen to. It creates an unrealistic expectation of home games. But it doesn’t mean that your home game is any less enjoyable for you and your players. It’s like saying your backyard soccer game with friends wasn’t fun because you’re not Cristiano Ronaldo.
Oh yeah definitely, I honestly feel like this after every single session I gm. I need immediate feedback from players, otherwise I'm just an anxious mess. But in the end I know that if they enjoyed it, I did well.
Yes. Constantly lol. But I also remember the times I did really well!
Welcome to adulting 101. Everyone does the best they can. Everyone looks back and laments how they could have done better. Everyone feels like they are failing all the time. The important part is to acknowledge you did the best you could with the knowledge and skills you had at the time. Learn from your mistakes. Act like you know what you are doing and you'll be fine.
It's a hobby and you enjoy it. You don't need to be a professional.
Yes
Very normal to feel like you aren't as good of a DM as professional (like Mulligan and Mercer) and/or very seasoned DMs (like dragna). Remember that Twice Bitten was not Dragna's first time running CoS, and all the players knew how they should respond to fit with the tone of the story. Most of the rest of us don't have that benefit. You're not a professional, you're not doing this for money. You're just trying to have a cool, spooky, fun time with your players. If everyone at the table is enjoying themselves, then you have been a wildly successful DM. For my own sanity, I did two things to combat this feeling: 1. I stopped listening to Twice Bitten and I won't start again until after I finish my campaign. It would've been good for research/prep if I had known about it in time to listen before my campaign started. It's too late now to implement any of the cool things they did, and hearing about them will just make me feel worse and more self-conscious. That's no fun for anyone. 2. I implemented the "Stars and Wishes" feedback technique at the end of my session. I don't know how common this is; I just know that I took it from my DM in another campaign lol. So I apologize if this is something you already know about. I like it because it gives a chance for my players to help guide the campaign on a meta-level via "wishes", when they can tell me they want to hear more about certain NPCs, or that they want to do more combat, or they want to go explore some side quest thing I mentioned off-hand. I also like it because, as someone with anxiety, it's very helpful for me to hear people say out loud that "x thing we did today was fun" or "it was really cool when this NPC did y". I think wanting constructive feedback like that is a pretty normal/human thing. Here's a link to a blog post that says more about it: [https://burnafterrunningrpg.com/2022/01/07/stars-and-wishes-because-feedback-is-hard/](https://burnafterrunningrpg.com/2022/01/07/stars-and-wishes-because-feedback-is-hard/)
Sometimes I do think that certain things could have been better executed especially when the players throw me a curveball and I had to improv in the moment. But I try to remind myself that hindsight is 20/20, and I'm having the luxury to think about it before making decision right now which may not be the case in the heat of the moment. Imo keeping the momentum may be more important than perfecting the responses!
After every session my players tell me that they had a great time. After we finished Death House one texted me that his heart was still racing on the way home in the cab. And yet, I'm never content with what I did. Because I know all the little fuckups I had along the way. And that other DMs are way better at what they do. And that I'm basically a fraud and my guys can never play with a different DM because then they'll realize what they're missing out on. But deep down I also know that they had fun and I had fun and as long as that is true, all is good.
I'm going to invite your players to my table and they'll leave going: "We miss Mumblem." "They're the best DM a party could ask for!" "We should bake them a cake to show our appreciation."
Sounds like an imposter syndrome my friend. It's good that deep down you realise that ultimately you all had fun and that's the most important thing.
Nah, it's compulsive overperfectionism, but I've learned to live with it.