The second Advanced Gamemastery video has been released! The Goblin Ampersand is a simple technique that you can use to supercharge the concept for any RPG scenario!
I talked about this a bit last week, but while our first video dived into the venerable concept of the Three Clue Rule, I wanted the second video in the series to present something completely new that hasn’t been seen on the Alexandrian before. In the long-term, the series will be a balance of these elements: Presenting the fundamentals of game mastering in new ways and to a new audience, but also diving into entirely new tips and tricks! And many videos will be a blend of both. Next week, for example, I’m hoping to combine a new introduction to sandbox campaigns with a few insights that will be very familiar to long-time readers of the Alexandrian!
Last week I also talked about how important it is for a new Youtube channel to have engagement with its videos: Subscriptions, likes, comments. I was overwhelmed by the outpouring of support! Thank you all so much for supporting me and the Alexandrian! And I’d really appreciate it if you’d do it again for our second video. Train the Youtube algorithm so that it knows how much you care about the Alexandrian and the algorithm will help introduce these ideas to an even wider audience!
Good gaming! And I’ll see you at the table!
The Goblin Ampersand + Cypher Bad Guys
Yum!
now it does work. sry for bothering. just excited to see the content.
Big fan of your site. This is meant constructively but I am not a fan of the narration style you’ve chosen for the videos. As a 50yo, I hate feeling like daddy is reading me a bedtime story. I have the same problem with audio books. I’d prefer just a normal conversation style, similar to your approach on twitch, just without the chat interaction. Good luck with the channel.
@phantomlvr That’s interesting because YouTube videos are definitely not my thing. And the way Justin talks really captures me for some reason, and I find myself watching the whole of it effortlessly. Anyway, I’m loving the channel! I never thought I’d say this, but it’s a shame this video was so short compared to the first.
A couple of published examples of this leap straight to mind. One is from Pathfinder’s Kingmaker adventure path, where the combination of trolls and kobolds into a single unfortunately-dangerous society can be found. The other is one of the various societies of Droaam as described in Exploring Eberron, comprised of goblins and kobolds who banded together to escape their collective underclass status.
@Lazyface: Actually your message — and a few others — were very useful! They alerted me that Youtube’s scheduling was not synchronized to the clock properly and the video wasn’t being released on time. I deleted the earlier messages only because they would be confusing for people once I’d fixed the video.
Thank you!
The narration style is an interesting one. I can definitely see why you make a good GM and actor, but it’s…unusual in this context. Not bad(at least not for me), just different.
And yeah, good video.
It (your style) strikes me as a bit … mannered, maybe? I wonder if this isn’t partly due to stage training, and trying to enunciate clearly (and maybe keep from rushing through a prepared script)?
It does sound slightly odd to me; that may just be because I’ve heard you speak casually and this is more performative.
The content is of course excellent.
@8 What it most reminds me of is the Gentleman Gamer.
“They have a cave troll.”
-Boromir
As others have noted, you have an interesting cadence to your speech Justin, but I don’t find it off-putting at all, and your voice is very listenable.
@10 I’ve always loved the way Sean Bean delivered that line — not with surprise or fear, but with a tone of weary disgust. “Oh great. A cave troll. Just what we need.”
I literally just did this yesterday! I had a bunch of undetailed Orc & Goblin caves in a newly developed campaign area, so I went in Roll20 Compendium, chose ‘Challenge 5 monsters’ and soon had one tribe led by a Cambion, another by a Black Knight Commander, a third allied with a Bar-Lgura demon – and some weird crocodile demon thing in the nearby river. Took about 3-5 minutes.
Really enjoyed this video (and the previous one as well). Nice work, and you provided solid advice for spicing things up. Peace.
Well, flipping open my MM I get goblins and… jackalweres. So let’s imagine a tribe of goblin slavers and raiders that work in alliance with a pack of jackalweres. They go on raids with the jackalweres in jackal form, carrying goblin archer riders. The jackalweres use their stunning gaze (which does work in jackal form) to try to knock out as many enemies as possible, then the goblins use mounted cavalry tactics (jackelweres using their superior speed and ability to double-move to keep the range open, goblins firing arrows) to engage whoever resisted their stunning gaze. Then the jackalweres feast on the corpses of the dead, while the goblins tie up their unconscious victims and collect the loot, then they take the captives back to their caves for use as slaves.
That’s at least two-three sessions worth of adventure right there: fighting off a raiding party, penetrating the caves to rescue the captives, and whatever they find in there.
[…] Because of the emphasis on imagination-sparking prompts, I want a random encounter roll to generate a non-obvious interaction between different local factors. I want the party to encounter a group of bandits being attacked by a pack of ghouls, or an errant friar riddling with a specter, or a necromancer’s apprentice dueling a basilisk. I want the Goblin Ampersand. […]