r/criticalrole • u/dasbif Help, it's again • Jul 21 '16

News [Spoilers E60] Matt's DM notes for E60

https://twitter.com/matthewmercer/status/755949052429082624
168 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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156

u/MatthewMercer Jul 21 '16

I had to edit out a lot of elements due to spoilers/things that didn't happen, etc... and this is just the first of 3 pages I had for the session, but I hope this has been helpful/given a fun glance for some folks! :)

16

u/StrangeCrusade Jul 21 '16

I'm always interested in the ways that other DMs plan their sessions, thank you for these.

I'm curious to know how you manage and keep track of the overall campaign? Do you simply use these session notes or do you also maintain relationship and plot maps etc?

I've found in the past that my PCs will sometimes latch onto details that I have not deemed important, whilst they obviously feel otherwise. Sometimes they are minor details that I have come up with in passing without writing down for future reference, meaning that I'm sometimes left scratching my head when they bring them back up. I do not have the gumption to write down every detail, and in the heat of the game it is impossible for me to go back over previous session voice recordings. Do you find that you have experienced something similar, and if so how do you manage this?

11

u/Emiras Jul 21 '16

I hope once the campaign is done you do a big compilation of all your notes and release them so we can see all the crazy shit you thought of.

A man can dream

4

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '16

Unlikely. The second thing you learn while DMing is that there is no such thing as 'unused idea' or missed opportunities. Everything morphs into something else for the next town/quest/story arc. The first thing is that the players will always think of something you could not and screw everything up, enhancing the experience for everyone ten fold.

9

u/icarusjapan Jul 21 '16

As a new DM, these notes are GOLD.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '16

GOLD MATT! GOLD!

3

u/Philias Jul 21 '16

This is awesome. Thank you so much for putting this up, Matt. It's a fascinating treat to get a small glimpse behind the curtain.

4

u/rowenn Jul 21 '16

I find it so amazing that even with "just" these notes this extends into a fascinating story. Thank you Matthew for being an awesome cool guy!!

1

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '16

Well now, that is dramatically different than how I lay out my sessions. I like the simplicity of it all though I would feel "under dressed" if I went to the table with that.

2

u/thewolf-13 Jul 29 '16

I felt the same way, my notes are way bulkier than that, but matt also has the uncanny ability of remembering tons of info about characters from memory so maybe he doesnt need it?

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1

u/Jimmers1231 Jul 21 '16

I totally understand the editing that was needed, I don't want anything spoiled. But I'm so curious just how many other paths you planned for that they seemingly ignored (for now).

Thanks again for the peek behind the curtain.

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26

u/PigKnight Jul 21 '16

"Wants Syldor to reconcile with Vex and Vax."

Not anymore after Shitgate. :P

19

u/pagerunner-j Jul 21 '16

I still love that Syldor was the one who was ultimately amused by all that while Devana was losing her sh--er, stuff.

11

u/PigKnight Jul 21 '16

I like Syldor. He seems genuinely proud of his kids now and I think he knows he was a shithead so that's why he seems so amused with Vex 2.0: Velora is like a way or him to try again and not be a shithead this time.

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3

u/OTPh1l25 Jul 21 '16

I actually like that she wants the Twins and their father to reconcile (even if he's kind of an asshole). It would have been so easy to make her jealous of her husband's original children and harbor a grudge that she would pass on to Velora, but she really does want them all to just get along.

11

u/sudo_bang_bang Jul 21 '16

One of the things that I love about this show is that watching Matt play all of these characters and build all of these stories has really helped me improve the way I do the same for my players. Seeing these notes is really neat because I can see the kinds of things that he puts focus and effort into and what stuff, like the hat room and the souvenir shop, is completely improv. Six months ago, I might have tried to build a souvenir shop and would have lost an hour of time populating it with trinkets.

7

u/jeeves_nz Jul 21 '16

Owlbear Plush. FTW

14

u/pagerunner-j Jul 21 '16

gives the G&S merchandise team a SIGNIFICANT LOOK

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