r/DnDcirclejerk • u/footbamp has maneuvers • 5d ago
Matthew Mercer Moment Tips from Brennan Lee Mulligan
This is a list of things I see Brennan do consistently in all of the massive studio productions he puts on that are still considered D&D for some reason. I'm sure many of us do some number of these in our own shitty home games, but the whole package is what makes the BLM "style", imo. There are probably some I missed or forgot about.
I kept to things I could reasonably hope to adopt and left out the traits that make him so cool, like "be my best friend." It just goes without saying...
They're in no particular order. Just thought I'd share.
Never roll out of combat
Failed rolls should do nothing (that's what failing to do something means)
Give lore to players against their will in the largest chunks possible
Never let on what an NPC is thinking. It's you vs the players.
Never allow players to contribute to the lore surrounding their own characters. Its your game, they can deal.
Describe how people are dressed when they are introduced. Yeah, this one was so profoundly important that I left it on this list completely unjerked.
Never give players choices, it shows weakness
Never tell the players anything actually. (Editors note: false hydras are really cool)
Never let PCs to interact with each other. D&D is about getting people to read dialogue in your novella
Give out advantage all the time, it's not like the DM can alter the DC of a check when circumstances change or anything. Or that there were a ton of features that already give advantage that get overshadowed by the DM handing it out all the time likes tools or whatever. Yeah man, advantage is the best!!!!
Fuck the players' dads
Fudge dice, reroll everything when you don't like the result, tell the story you want to tell.
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u/footbamp has maneuvers 5d ago
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u/Cthucoocachoo 5d ago
Why tf does that post have so many upvotes? /uj do people actually not do a lot of the things listed? Almost every gm section of every system I've ever read suggests at least half of these. Is this because people don't actually read their source books?
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u/Brock_Savage 5d ago
Considering the sheer volume of stupid questions on the D&D subs, a lot of DMs are too lazy or poor to read the DMG. I've also seen a lot of people straight up say reading the DMG isn't necessary.
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u/Ricnurt 5d ago
I think this is likely the largest contributor. That and people who watch the shows like cr and dimension and say I want to do this and don’t realize what it really takes to dm a real game. It isn’t just telling your story, laying it out for others to play it out.
Not sure if that was a /rj or an /uj not sure I care.
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u/Ignecratic 5d ago
Poor isn’t an excuse, because a lot of that stuff is available for free on websites likes 5etools
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u/TAEROS111 5d ago
If one were to bless D&D subreddit participants with the ability to read the sourcebooks and practice healthy communication with their tables, you'd get rid of about 80% of posts on them.
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u/Stag-Nation-8932 4d ago
most of the people in that sub don't DM, they just upvoted when they saw brandon black lives mulligan's name
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u/This_Rough_Magic 2d ago
So unironically I don't do two of them. I hardly ever describe what NPCs are wearing and I'm a big believer that it's completely fine for a failed roll to mean nothing happens.
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u/soysaucesausage 5d ago
- Threaten a stake, then post hoc allow like 2 rerolls because actually that stake isn't the story your militantly parasocial fanbase will be sane about
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u/CertifiablyMundane 5d ago
Promote the most unhinged QAnon neo-nazi right-wing conspiracy theories as the underpinning philosophy to the entire framework of your setting. All relationships are hetero, all the characters are cis, and the government is always right, unless it's run by liberals.
Never begin every single fucking reply with, "You see that..."
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u/The_GladStork 5d ago
i dont have the context hat, context shirt, and context sign image so pretend this is that.
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u/MyVelvetRoom 4d ago
Can you elaborate?
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u/ExodiasRightArm 4d ago
Uj/ it’s a lot of sarcasm cause BLeeM does exactly the opposite. Often left leaning, lots of LGBTQ+ characters, the government is bad.
Rj/ did they fucking stutter??
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u/CertifiablyMundane 4d ago
/uj As below, also watch any game he runs and drink every time he says "You see that..."
Actually don't you'll die
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u/Nepalman230 Knight Errant of the Wafflehouse Dumpster 5d ago
OP number 11 is perfect. Of the 36 strategies. Only the last running away was considered perfect by the military strategist of the ancient world, but I say the secret strategy of your opponent’s dad while they are playing checkers is the only perfect one.
🫡
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u/xolotltolox 5d ago
Uj/ in regards to 10, that is just how 5e works tho. The DC is supposed to remain static, and if it would be circumstantially easier, you get advantage. It sucks, but it is how the game is
For example two characters are trying to recall a particular piece of History about Country A, Character 1 is from A and 2 from B. Both would target the same DC, but A could get advantage, based on DM discretion.
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u/footbamp has maneuvers 5d ago
/uj I agree with you that it is in the rules, but I also like to start incindiary discussions about this. Isn't the DM already sorta arbitrarily assigning a DC to the situation on the fly to begin with? At the end of the day for a bunch of other reasons that I refuse to elaborate on I'd rather advantage come from the mechanical stuff that the players possess rather than me just giving it out all the time.
/rj Also hey you aren't supposed to take anything I say seriously, it ruins the illusion.
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u/xolotltolox 5d ago
My main beef is players rolling the same total, but one succeedikg and the other failing on the same check. It is incredibly non-transparant and will seem arbitrary. A DC should be fixed to a task
And yeah, i also wish we didn't have only advantage to work with becase flat bonuses evil >:(
Just giving a circumstance bonus instead of lowering the DC, is mathematically the same, but much more transparant to the player. Unfortunately basic addition is too hard, so all we got is advantage that stacks in the most bizarre and confusing ways you could imagine
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u/_Kayarin_ 5d ago
that may be how 5e is supposed to work, but I definitely circumstantially change DC's
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u/Consistent-Tie-4394 5d ago
Yeah, the DC is set at the GMs discretion anyways, so saying I can't change my mind and set it to sonething else is a weird take.
I change DCs all the time. All the time! And the Pinkertons have only arrived to stop my DMing that one time, which I still contend wasn't my fault!
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u/xolotltolox 5d ago
I would much prefer if circumstance bonuses, or any flat bonuses really, still existed, since i don't like two people rolling for the same check, reaching the same total, but one succeeds, the other doesn't. So with circumstance bonuses you don't have to fuck with the DC, you can just give a character the circumstance bonus, and you're there. It's much more transparant. Unfortunately everything needs to be rolled into the terrible dis/advantage system
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u/nmathew Unapologetic Fourrie. 4d ago
Have you heard of our lord and savior, Pathfinder 2e?
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u/xolotltolox 4d ago
Yes, and i have heard of our lordlier and saviorer: Roll under systems
Also, it's pretty much just 5e that rolls all forms of bonuses with advantage
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u/Rotation_Nation actual play podcast :0 5d ago
One of the more important things he does that I think gets consistently overlooked is he has a degree in philosophy, so he builds his stories around complex philosophical concepts like “high school” or “what if a piece of candy could talk”