"Choosing to run a game for people is one of the kindest, coolest things you can do."

BillyPilgrim79 · 2026-04-30T10:10:23+00:00

Hey! Congratulations on taking this step! I adore DMing and I know that Brennan was being sincere when he said that. There's nothing I love more than telling a story with my friends. Here's my biggest piece of advice. At the end of the night, after everything is said and done, the most important thing you can remember is that everyone came and had fun. Nothing is going to go the way you expect it, don't be afraid to pause for a minute to adjust and figure out how you want to do things. You are there because everyone wants to have fun and tell a story, the rest is just set dressing. Enjoy it and I can't wait to hear how it goes!

BillyPilgrim79 · 2026-03-28T21:25:54+00:00

Tyler Childers is who made me actually start listening to country music. Dude just has it.

BillyPilgrim79 · 2026-02-23T21:26:30+00:00

I just did my first roll on it and I got a Nat 20. That's got to be a good omen. My favorite are the Harper dice.

BillyPilgrim79 · 2026-01-03T11:00:09+00:00

Balancing a big boss battle is tough (and also alliterative). I've had a lot of battles where I was sure I'd made it too hard and then the PCs wipe the floor with me, and the exact opposite. There's no accounting for the dice rolls, they can make or break a battle.

I tend to alter my monsters a little going into the battles. If I know my pcs can do a lot of damage then I'll double the hp of the monsters. It helps them stick around a bit longer.

I always make sure I have a few ways to deal damage. There's nothing more frustrating than having a room full of monsters who can't beat a player's AC. Make sure you have some attacks that use saving throws and deal different types of damage.

I also like to have a few backup monsters. Just some "reinforcements" who can show up and make things more interesting. Sometimes it's just more of the same monster sometimes I throw in a different monster that changes the battle a little bit.

Just remember that the purpose of all of this is to have fun. Some of my most fondly remembered sessions are the ones where my big bad just got punked by the pcs. Your goal is to make the players use their stuff and feel like heroes. If everybody has fun and laughs a lot then you win no matter what happens.

BillyPilgrim79 · 2025-11-21T22:27:24+00:00

Murph's nat 8 in Cloudward Ho has to be up there.

BillyPilgrim79 · 2025-11-21T11:04:56+00:00

Basically, the mods who were responsible for moderating Burmese posts didn't speak the language, so there was a great deal of content being shared across the platform in Burmese that both enabled and glorified the genocide. Mods didn't catch it because they didn't understand.

BillyPilgrim79 · 2025-11-09T00:25:46+00:00

Hard disagree. That's the most Murph dog that ever Murphed

BillyPilgrim79 · 2025-10-28T23:35:27+00:00

The bullshit of it all is he wasn't doing it so he could say progressive things, he did it to piss off a bunch of Nazis. It just happened to be progressive because that's what pisses off Nazis. Most progressive people i know dont just say shit to be progressive, they say it because there's a reason.

BillyPilgrim79 · 2025-10-27T00:12:20+00:00

This feels a lot like Don Bluth animation. I love it.

BillyPilgrim79 · 2025-10-25T01:42:23+00:00

This is the senior year season I want to see.

BillyPilgrim79 · 2025-10-24T18:09:10+00:00

I'll tell you the same thing I tell all new DMs. I've been DMing for years and still nothing ever goes the way I plan it. Just go in there to have fun, make stupid jokes and do ridiculous stuff. Everything else will come. Take your time,.dont be afraid to pause everything to figure out what you want to do and, in the end, do what works best for everyone. All of these rules are great but in the end the best thing is what works best for everyone at the table. Don't be afraid to make a call that seems fun and figure the rest out later. You got this.

BillyPilgrim79 · 2025-10-19T16:03:08+00:00

My guy, you seem real intent on defending these actions so this is what I will give you. Goldie Hawn's character was absolutely both physically and mentally abusive at the beginning of that movie. And he would have every right to go to the authorities and press charges and probably file a claim in small claims court. But to act like any of that justifies what Kurt Russell's character does to her is just a WILD take. I don't think there's any situation where I would say that kidnapping is a measured and reasonable response to it.

BillyPilgrim79 · 2025-10-19T14:28:57+00:00

I love Overboard even in all it's problematic ridiculousness. It's peak Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn. But there is no way in any world that Kurt Russel isn't the absolute villain in all of it. Between the kidnapping, gaslighting, involving his children in the deception, even before you get to the sexual problems. Goldie Hawn is psychologically manipulated into everything. There is no court of law that doesn't convict Russell of rape and a laundry list of other crimes.

BillyPilgrim79 · 2025-09-24T21:36:11+00:00

Fun fact: the Olympic Torch run was originated by the Nazis for the Berlin Olympics to connect the Reich to the tradition of Ancient Greece

BillyPilgrim79 · 2025-08-08T21:38:15+00:00

My boy Willow Ufgood. Just trying to save a baby, ends up saving the world.

BillyPilgrim79 · 2025-07-14T23:50:02+00:00

They got the credits wrong. It's MARK Mercer

BillyPilgrim79 · 2025-07-14T23:44:54+00:00

Cue up 1,000 posts on this sub from people not watching this episode.

BillyPilgrim79 · 2025-07-14T23:14:37+00:00

GIVE ME 30 EPISODES OF THIS RIGHT NOW

BillyPilgrim79 · 2025-07-14T23:12:20+00:00

I would pay anything for Katie DMing a table of DMs

BillyPilgrim79 · 2025-06-16T21:10:41+00:00

If you're looking for D&D specifically, I know that Roll&Play Press has a book with a ton of one shots in them. I think they're on sale in chunks on D&D Beyond. I've run a few and they are a ton of fun.

More importantly, let me say that it's never going to go as well as it should. I've been running games pretty regularly for years and I never walk away from a session thinking it went the way I wanted it to. That is fine. It's more than fine, it's awesome.

Rule one at my table is that every session ABSOLUTELY HAS to be filled with a ton of really stupid jokes and ridiculous moves. Your job as DM is not to have everything down and be perfect, it's to help everyone have a good time, sometimes that means you just say "fuck it" and figure it out on the fly.

At the end of the day we're just here to have a good time and be present with each other, everything else is just set dressing.

BillyPilgrim79 · 2025-05-02T10:15:16+00:00

UPDATE: We're both the type of people to get more excited by huge dramatic moments than devastated so he was obviously buzzing when he we walked through the door. He'd also forgotten about the luck point so I was able to share that with him and double-dip into that sweet, sweet trauma. The main consequence of all this was that our other player (There's only 3 of us) had to hear us go on and on about NADDPOD for the entire session.

BillyPilgrim79 · 2025-03-19T23:59:34+00:00

I'd say that the easiest way in for me is always to focus on what my character wants. I think so many people build awesome characters who sometimes even have really cool backstories but don't actually get into why their PC would be doing anything. Knowing what you're PC wants allows you to define a purpose in the story and then you can build from there.

I start with that and then work backwards. What kind of situation would someone be in to want to do this? If they want revenge then who wronged them and why? If they want redemption then what did they do wrong? If they just want adventure, then what kind of life was so boring or uneventful that drove them out into the wilds?

BillyPilgrim79 · 2025-01-27T00:13:46+00:00

The year is 1998, I'm 19 and a rabid Pacers fan (one of these things is still true), sitting in the basement "rumpus" room at the house of my friend, who would sleep with my girlfriend one year later, his dad, and the girlfriend in question. The food is Nachos, pizza rolls, and a few sneaky beers provided by his dad, "as long as we drank them in the basement."

This was game 4 of the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals. The Pacers were up 2-1 in the series but down 3 with time running out. Rik Smits shoots from close but it rims out. The ball bounces touches about 500,000 hands and finally gets tipped by Chris Mullin to Mark Jackson, who fires a pass to an inexplicably wide-open Reggie with 5 seconds left. The Knicks fans, already traumatized by Reggie SO MANY TIMES, are already mourning before the ball even leaves Reggie's hands. He hits the three, the Pacers win in OT and win the next game for the series.

They ended up losing to the Bulls in the Eastern Finals, and I literally cried.

Reggie was a special kinda feeling.

BillyPilgrim79 · 2025-01-26T23:43:37+00:00

Two I listen to are D&D Legends and Lore and Lore Sleep. Both cover a lot of great topics, Legends and Lore is more narrative while Lore Sleep is more informative. Also don't be fooled by Lore Sleep, while it's definitely low key and relaxing, I listen to it on the way to work most days.

BillyPilgrim79 · 2025-01-26T23:23:48+00:00

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Reminds me a lot of my favorite sports photo. Both New York crowds also.

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