For Whom the Bell Tolls: Homebrew Collaboration Part 3

How to Be a Better DM: Dungeon Master Tips for the DM Newbie, the Hobbyist and the Forever DM

justin:

Welcome back to How to be a Better DM. I'm your co-host today, Justin Lewis, here with Tanner Wayland and Rob Van Auken. Go ahead and say hello, guys.

tanner_weyland:

Hey.

rob:

Good evening, everyone.

justin:

And you are joining How to be a Better DM in our mini-series on collaborating for homebrewing a adventure one-shot. And today, we wanted this to be raw and unfiltered, really, just to show you kind of the ins and outs of how to work with other people, the ebb and flow of ideas, and in our case, starting with one idea, refining it and kind of changing trajectory. Today we are going to be... going through our document that we've worked on together and kind of simplifying things, clarifying things, and we actually should be coming close to the end after I think we have everything figured out today. We should be able to send out some assignments to each of us, have things written up, and then probably the next time we'll have our final polishing session, but that might be wrong, so we'll see. And

tanner_weyland:

Yeah,

justin:

we are

tanner_weyland:

sounds

justin:

just

tanner_weyland:

great.

justin:

starting at the top of the document. And then one, one. word of advice to all of us, if we can just try and describe whenever we're like that part there, try and describe for the audio listeners, because I know this, we're doing it in a visual way, but the audio listener might not be. So.

tanner_weyland:

Okay, perfect. Um, and, uh, just for the listeners, uh, we've honestly been working on this for a sec with Rob, but he is just, I just have to say he's wonderful to work with. And I appreciate that. Just had to throw that out there at the start.

rob:

Aw, thanks fellas.

justin:

Agreed.

rob:

I feel the same way about you guys. You guys are consummate professionals. I appreciate the willingness to work with a newcomer and I'm enjoying myself. And you know, this is hard. This is hard. We're in two different time zones. Our lives are doing things in different times. So writing is hard to begin with and to collaborate across time zones. At least we have the tools now to do that. But it's been a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to polishing this thing up.

justin:

Excellent, excellent.

tanner_weyland:

Love it.

justin:

So I figure we would start at the, well, so we have kind of a page that's above like the actual one shot. Do we need to work on any of that? And that's kind of some of our thoughts or do we need to just kind of forget about that?

tanner_weyland:

Honestly, I think this is old. Go

justin:

Okay.

tanner_weyland:

ahead Rob.

rob:

So

justin:

Alright.

rob:

this page just outlined our original ideas, our locations, and a couple of reminders for ourselves to do the three pillars and things like that. But yeah, I think this stuff is all. We can next this.

justin:

Sounds good. So then

tanner_weyland:

Yeah, um...

justin:

for the listener, there's a portion that says theme, setting, three pillars, location, timeline, and then assignments and reminder. I'm going to delete everything above assignments to theme because that is no longer useful. I'll leave the assignments one there unless we feel like we do need to delete that.

tanner_weyland:

Um, I th-

rob:

We can...

tanner_weyland:

go ahead. Uh,

rob:

After you, Dad.

tanner_weyland:

yeah, I just think- I think we could leave that section. I don't think- we're going, I think that we're going to have to probably modify the assignments as they stand. Cause right now we're like, Oh, each of us is making two NPC mentors right now. They would be trial givers probably.

justin:

Right.

tanner_weyland:

Um, and then a random NPC just to flesh out the world a little bit more. Um, I don't know if that's what we're going to be doing like next. Cause

justin:

Okay.

tanner_weyland:

cause this time just for the listener, since our last, uh, kind of meeting with Rob, we've come up with a lot of ideas. and really solidified the direction of the adventure. And because of that, I think there's just a lot of fat that we need to trim on the document in general.

justin:

For sure.

rob:

I'm all in favor of keeping the assignments heading but deleting the current assignments so that when we leave here tonight

justin:

Okay.

rob:

we at least can put something up there.

justin:

Yeah, I actually think we can delete the assignments

rob:

Thank you.

justin:

as well now that I think about it. So if you guys want. There's also on the right, I believe in that section, there were comments on the right, yeah. There's a comment saying, replacing the mentors, and this is talking about the assignments we'd given ourselves, replacing the mentors with trials or events. I think this entire section we could probably mark resolved because I think this is like, down the line where we start talking about using bells and doing the trials of bells. I think that's definitely what we're going for. Yeah. Excellent. Then, under that assignment section, there's a section that says reminder and then two bullet points for representation and beginner DM suggestions. I believe the beginner DM suggestions were for me and Tanner to create suggestions throughout the doc for new DMs. You can feel free to do the same thing, Rob. I'll just put that under each of us as an assignment.

rob:

for me.

justin:

Or I guess, sorry, I didn't mean to take your job, Rob.

rob:

No, no, no. I'm comfortable. Ha ha ha.

justin:

I'm kind of an idiot because I'm like, hey, can someone be the scribe? And then immediately I'm like,

rob:

Yeah.

justin:

oh, all rights. Anyways, sorry.

rob:

Not alone,

justin:

Yeah,

rob:

not

justin:

but

rob:

alone.

justin:

for the representation bullet, I don't remember what that was for. Do either of you remember what that was for?

rob:

So yeah, I actually added that because for new DM creators, and just for the listeners, where this is coming from is that I've taken a couple of courses with professional writing companies to kind of flesh this sort of game style out. And one of the things that... you know, they stress is to reminder for representation. So that just means having a diversity of characters, whether it be racial backgrounds or just backgrounds in general, you know, able-bodied characters and things of that nature and just having a widespread of different NPCs to populate your, you know, your adventure or your game. So I just want to make a mental note for us to kind of just keep that sort of thing in our focus, right? So that, you know, kind of like, you know. wash over everything.

justin:

Very well.

tanner_weyland:

Yeah, that's a really good point. Yeah, especially since we still, I spent some time working on some NPCs, but I didn't really flesh out like them in depth. More like, oh, these were some of the trial givers. And like, I came up with a name, and obviously they didn't be related to that trial. But, you know, it's a great reminder that when you are fleshing out and making more dimensional. three-dimensional characters, you know, don't just make them all like yourself. It gets

rob:

Yeah, exactly,

tanner_weyland:

boring that

rob:

and

tanner_weyland:

way.

rob:

that's all that was supposed to be. It was just a visual reminder to do that.

justin:

Sounds good. Cool, so then moving on. The next block of text is the title of the one-shot. Rob, you had put down how to be a better DM presents for whom the bell tolls. And then over to the right, there's the comment of just an idea. So Tanner, do you think that's a good thing? Do you have any comments? Or same Rob, do you have any comments?

rob:

I didn't want to feel like you guys need to oblige you to attach your name to this, but I just thought because I wanted to give you guys the due credit.

justin:

Hahaha

tanner_weyland:

Yeah, it's not a bad idea. I think with our revised title idea, namely, For Whom the Belt Holes colon, the Chime Fall Ceremony, for that, if we attacked on how to be a better DM, then it does feel a little bit long, but like that's fine, if necessary, right? I don't know.

justin:

To be honest,

rob:

again, as it.

justin:

I would... Go ahead, Rob.

rob:

Visually, if that's a concern, I can, of course, put a catty corner of that. The big

tanner_weyland:

I like to kind of have

rob:

cover

tanner_weyland:

to sit.

rob:

text will say, for whom the bell tolls, the chime falls.

justin:

Right. I actually think we should do title, for whom the bell tolls, colon, the Chime Fall Ceremony, gosh. And then kind of as it is on one of the cover arts that you presented to us, at the bottom how it says, authored by Justin, Rob and Tanner, I think we should have like underneath that say, you know, produced by How to Be a Better DM or something like that. You know.

rob:

I love it. Yeah, that works for

justin:

Rather,

rob:

me. Yeah.

justin:

you know, like let the title be the title. But that's my personal opinion.

rob:

I

tanner_weyland:

Perfect.

rob:

dig that, I dig that. Things like that, the cosmetic things about where to put, we'll do a whole round of that before

justin:

for sure.

rob:

we send this off, and we'll all sign off on the things like that. Speaking

justin:

Exactly.

rob:

of which, I hope you guys like those covers, because I was digging

justin:

Yeah.

rob:

them. Ha ha ha.

justin:

Yeah, they're sweet.

tanner_weyland:

Yeah, honestly, at some point, I don't know if we want to do this now or at the end or something, we should pull those up and kind of just vote on which

justin:

Yeah,

tanner_weyland:

style

justin:

yeah,

tanner_weyland:

we like.

justin:

we can...

rob:

Yeah, we'll

justin:

What

rob:

do

justin:

do you

rob:

that.

justin:

guys

rob:

We'll

justin:

prefer?

rob:

do that. We'll re- We

justin:

Gotcha.

rob:

can do that at the end. Yeah, we'll wrap it up.

justin:

Yeah, sounds good. Tanner, do you want to lead us through like the next two sections, so tips for DMing and setting?

tanner_weyland:

Yeah. Um, so the tips for DMing, uh, basically it was just the idea that since we are about a podcast about how to be a better DM, uh, then we would actually have like. So a lot of adventures will have some general tips about like, oh, for this part, do this and this, but it's more just what to flesh out what the writer had in mind. What we want to do is have some tips for how they could do it better as a DM, like just in general, like just period, right? And so as far as echoes, I think this section, not a whole lot. to say other than I picture like the tips kind of like being off to the side of each

justin:

Mm-hmm.

tanner_weyland:

section you know. Like an example would be oh it's a it's a social encounter and giving some advice about like how to embody a character and how to draw out quieter characters like things like that right. That's

rob:

Yeah,

tanner_weyland:

a great

justin:

Yeah.

rob:

that's

tanner_weyland:

example.

rob:

a perfect example.

justin:

One

tanner_weyland:

Yeah

justin:

thing

tanner_weyland:

go ahead.

justin:

kind of came to mind just as you were saying that is some of these tips might come to our minds as we actually DM this for a live table, you know, so that might be part of kind of our beta testing. You know, we put together different one shots each of us or something and we see how it goes and we kind of take notes. But that's something we can decide later as you know, just kind of. Think about that if that's something you want to do.

tanner_weyland:

Yeah.

rob:

I think that works for the whole idea of this is how to be a better DM. I think those DM tips are clutch for newcomers too because we're making this very beginner friendly. It's our hope, I would think, that when we finish this, somebody who's never played the game of Dungeon & Dragons before or any RPG could pick this up and plop this into a home brew campaign or just say, you know what, I just want to test the waters with this and it's a one shot, it's non-committal, it's built for three, four hours. Let me try this out. But I really don't know where to start. Like you said, Tanner, it's a perfect example of the social encounters or maybe a tip on how to manage combat or we're gonna have these trials that are set up for characters' ability levels. And originally we were gonna have, I think it was six, and now because of what we've been discussing, we might have just an appendix of these different events that we would recommend. Pick three,

justin:

Yeah.

rob:

if you have three characters, or double up on the events. to the number of

tanner_weyland:

Yeah.

rob:

players that you have. And pick ones that are catered to their ability scores, right? So you're not sending out a barbarian to do a bard's work with a bunch of Charisma checks. You know?

justin:

Yeah.

tanner_weyland:

Exactly. Yeah. And so I think for now, as we talk about this, you too, let's, let's make sure that along with, you know, especially as we make more of an outline of the actual adventure, like step by step, that we'd be thinking about that, about these DM tips, and

justin:

Mm-hmm.

tanner_weyland:

just like kind of make a little like side bullet point for like, oh, DM tip. And then

justin:

now.

tanner_weyland:

for now, before we flesh it out, we can just do like, you know, like a sentence, just kind of getting the gist of it. And then once we're like really fleshing this out, we can present each of those tips in a, in a more specific or more instructive way. Okay.

justin:

Agreed. You guys wanna read through the setting blurb and see if there's anything we need to change?

tanner_weyland:

Okay,

rob:

there

tanner_weyland:

I'll read

rob:

is.

tanner_weyland:

this.

justin:

Hahaha

rob:

This needs to

tanner_weyland:

So,

rob:

be updated.

tanner_weyland:

setting, this encounter can be set in any village or city. In this encounter, the PCs encounter an event hosted by the Regional Adventuring Guild. The Guild is in search of new adventurers, and they have designed a series of trials to test new applicants. This adventure is designed for... four to six level one characters. Players will develop to level two after this encounter. The difficulty can be adjusted at the DM's discretion. So this was the original thing that we came up with. I think that... We've kind of decided it's not, yeah, it could be in any village or city. You know, we kind of pictured this as a ceremony. Or do we want to make the village or city like Chime Fall? I thought it was just going to be like the Academy name, essentially.

justin:

Yeah. I- Go ahead Rob.

rob:

Well, I was thinking, so location setting, I think, well, I'm really partial to both the two names that you came up with, Jinglefell and Chimefall. Chimefall sounds like a really cool name for the ceremony in Jinglefell, which by the way, I think it's perfect timing for the holidays. But to have this located in the city of Jinglefell and this be the Chimefall ceremony, I think makes some sense. Now what that would entail is now our task, right? Like how do we fit these trials into the Chime Fall Ceremony? And like right off the bat, what is the Chime Fall Ceremony? Why are they having it? What does it do? Is this a once a year thing? Is this a once in a decade thing? I'm intrigued. I wanna know more. There's a little bit of lore building to this, I think, but I don't wanna go too crazy down that rabbit hole cause I will. Right? But I think for the setting, if we say this can be set in any village or city, this encounter is... uh... posted by this the city of jinglesville with the event of the child also said by the city of jinglesville i think is enough to kind of just kept our the planted

justin:

Yeah, I would

rob:

are

justin:

add,

rob:

you guys

justin:

go ahead, in the wording I would say this encounter can be set in any region in the city of Jinglefell. So basically if you're a DM, you can add this city anywhere, you know, and kind of flavor it to the region. Or, well, maybe we could put in a note like as a DM tip like hey, if you don't want to, you don't have to call it Jinglefell. You could just make it any city. Like this could happen in Waterdeep in like one of the neighborhoods or something.

tanner_weyland:

Yeah, one thing I like about this, so I noticed one of you highlighted this, I think it was Rob, but the regional adventurer in Guild. So there's that option. there's also the option that we go a little bit more high level or I don't know if high level is the word for it but we basically make it a little bit more specific and have it be like hey this academy in the city or maybe just this city like has a tradition of like creating or choosing through trials like certain people who become like a like a...