D&D Duet GM Diary One for A Widening World - Session Zero, PC Motivations, and GM notes

Описание: Welcome to our new campaign, A Widening World! (This is a tentative campaign name while I come up with one I like better 😉) In this video, I (Beth) recount my strategy as a GM for session zero of a new campaign, especially a new duet campaign.

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We like to begin with a "normal" day-in-the-life for the PC, spending time with friends, mentors, and allies before we introduce the major change(s) that is going to shake up everything they know and hold dear! The player has likely already gotten to think about where the PC is coming from, and that makes it easier for them to actively drive what happens in these sessions.

It can also be helpful to have both positive and negative motivations for the PC—and it's fine to figure these out along the way! There are things I knew about Serrick/Edwin, buttons I can push that will frustrate him OR blindspots for his character that I can take advantage of as the GM. This is not to say that the GM should view either the player or PC with hostility—I don't like that in general, and I really am not a fan of that for duet gaming. But it IS my job as the storyteller to push Edwin outside of his comfort zone, and that's exactly what his backstory sets me up to do!

I also show the GM notes in this video. I'm working on a short where I go over those in more detail.

Oh and the word I can't remember talking about Ruse, my GMPC, and her companion is tressym! (Yes, if you were wondering, inspired by my love in BG3! I think it was inevitable that I would fall for Gale, with other crushes to go around of course, but I can't lie about favorites!)

In the video, I mention my newest novel, Phantom available as a serialized story, which you can check out here: https://reamstories.com/bethball
Like my Age of Azuria series, Phantom is based on our duet game only in this case, I designed the duet campaign arc with the plan of also turning it into a novel in the future! You can learn more about Age of Azuria here: https://bethballbooks.com/age-of-azuria/

Show notes with added advice for striking a balance for "enough" prep: https://dndduet.com/duetprep/

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