YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → The Brennan Method Every DM Should Be Stealing

The Brennan Method Every DM Should Be Stealing — Transcript

by Edariad · 2,871 words · 439 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:00Everyone says Brennan Lee Mulligan is a
0:02genius DM. And although he is a great
0:05improviser and good at voices, so is
0:08Matt Mercer and plenty of others. So why
0:10do his games in particular feel so deep
0:14and powerful? The truth is Brennan isn't
0:16just a dungeon master. He has what I
0:19would call a superpower that I think
0:21most people are missing. And in this
0:23video, I will show you what it is and
0:26[music] how he uses it so you can steal
0:28the same ideas to make your own games
0:31unforgettable. Okay, so if it's not just
0:33the performance, what makes him so good?
0:36Let's eliminate what everyone talks
0:38about first. He is an incredible
0:40improviser. That is true. He spent many
0:43years as a professional comedian,
0:45performing and teaching improv with a
0:48group called Upright Citizens Brigade,
0:51which is an iconic name in the world of
0:53comedy [music] and improv. And this
0:55gives him the ability to pivot
0:56immediately when players do something
0:59unexpected. It is an incredibly useful
1:01skill to have as a DM, and it does a lot
1:03of heavy lifting. But being an improv
1:06god does not give you the ability to
1:08make people cry. So, is it the voices
1:11then? I'm not going to spoil anything
1:13here, but yeah, let's just say Brennan
1:15played many memorable NPCs with cool
1:18voices over the years, but once again,
1:20there are tons of great voice actors in
1:22the DND actual play space. Matt Mercer
1:24is arguably even better at this. And
1:27even though I love Critical Role and
1:29everyone in the cast is incredible at
1:31voices as well, whenever I watch Brennan
1:34DM, there's always something more to it,
1:36right? So, maybe it's the way he preps.
1:39Brennan has a very cool approach that's
1:41all about making toys where he creates
1:43building blocks to help him improvise. I
1:45might make a video about it soon cuz I
1:48think it's the best way to go about
1:50prep, but I'm certainly not as good as
1:52him. So, there must be something else.
1:54So, what is it? What's Brennan's secret?
1:57It had me thinking for a while until I
2:00zoomed out and stopped focusing on the
2:02way he runs the game at the table and
2:04took a look at the bigger picture,
2:06[music] at what his campaigns are about.
2:08I then realized Crown of Candy, one of
2:11the campaigns he ran with Dimension 20,
2:13isn't just Game of Thrones with food
2:14people. Instead, it deals with rebellion
2:17and whether it can be justified to
2:19rebel. Just like Fantasy High, another
2:21Dimension 20 show is not simply high
2:24school drama with magic, but about
2:27creating a meaning after you leave the
2:29belief system you had when you were
2:31younger. And it started to click into
2:34place. The topic of world building is
2:37one of my favorites, and [music] it's
2:38fun and easyish to create a world, but
2:42we all tend to focus on the cool names
2:43and whether our rivers flow correctly
2:46and how we're going to make the elves
2:48not so Tolkeny. But Brennan takes a
2:50different road, which gives us the start
2:52of the answer we were looking for,
2:54hiding in plain sight in his background.
2:57Brennan Lee Mulligan is smart. He is I
3:00went to college at 14 smart and there he
3:03got a philosophy degree. He studied
3:05ethics and morality in particular under
3:08a professor Tom Davis who had a massive
3:10impact on him at a young [music] age.
3:12And in his own words, this is an actual
3:14quote from an interview in Rolling
3:16Stones magazine. I found when he starts
3:18working on a new campaign, the first
3:21place I start is ethics and people and
3:23human nature and what it means to be
3:25alive. People joke about philosophy
3:28degrees. Baby, I'm putting that degree
3:30to work every goddamn day. This combined
3:33with the fact Brennan keeps a picture of
3:36his late philosophy professor above his
3:38desk made me think, all right, yeah,
3:41this stuff really matters to him. But I
3:43think it would be a mistake to stop at,
3:46oh, philosophy background. Yeah, cool.
3:48That explains Brennan's superpower. It's
3:50just not enough. Because ridding old
3:53German dudes does not automatically give
3:55you the power to make people cry over
3:57food people dying. I know philosophy is
4:00more than old German dudes, but you get
4:02my point. The important bit isn't that
4:03he uses philosophy, but how? Cuz he is
4:06not lecturing or explaining Plato during
4:09encounters. The philosophy bit is
4:10transparent. He smuggles it into the
4:13game through three specific mechanisms
4:15that are easy to miss. So, let me show
4:17you exactly how each one works. starting
4:20with the foundation. But before I go on,
4:24I want to share something with you. When
4:26I look at my analytics, I see many of
4:28you guys watch these videos but aren't
4:31subscribed to the channel yet. [music]
4:32So, I would like to make a deal with
4:34you. If you could do me a huge favor and
4:37hit that subscribe button, I will work
4:39obsessively to make these videos better
4:42and better and [music] better. I'm still
4:44a small channel and it's hard to
4:45overstate how much this helps. When the
4:47channel gets bigger, it means more reach
4:50and ultimately more resources for me to
4:52help you guys have more fun playing this
4:54game we all love. All right, so let's
4:57dive back in with that foundation I was
4:59telling you about. When DMs choose to
5:02use a philosophical idea as part of
5:04their games, it's often used as a theme.
5:07It could look like this campaign is
5:09about justice, for example. It's a
5:11coating you sprinkle on top for flavor.
5:14It makes the game a bit cooler and gives
5:16it some depth, [music] sure, but the
5:18game stays a game, and the goal is what
5:20we call escapism. We use the game as a
5:23way to escape our reality. It's not bad.
5:26I've done it a lot, and it's a totally
5:27valid way to play DND. But Brennan has a
5:30different approach. In another interview
5:32I found, he says, "I'm not trying to
5:34escape shit." And explains that he uses
5:37fantasy to explore real emotions and
5:39process the heavy realities of life. In
5:41his approach, fantasy becomes a map for
5:44[music] reality. Instead of distancing
5:46yourself from reality, you use the game
5:48to see reality in a different light. By
5:51doing so, Brennan establishes purpose
5:53fast and gives the game a rockolid
5:55foundation to build on. Let's look at a
5:58few examples from his D&D career. The
6:00Unsleeping City, another Dimension 20
6:02campaign, looks like fantasy in New
6:05York, but it's actually about urban
6:07alienation under a latestage capitalism
6:09and the feeling of being surrounded by
6:11millions of people, but still feeling
6:13completely alone. In Crown of Candy, you
6:16could just think, he's a comedian. This
6:18is just Game of Thrones with food
6:19people. But the campaign is actually
6:22asking what legitimizes political
6:24authority. When is rebellion morally
6:27justified? How do religious institutions
6:29manipulate populations? So, how does
6:32that even work? Well, here's what I
6:34think is happening. If someone said,
6:36"Let's explore political philosophy in
6:38our next DN game." You might think, "Wo,
6:41okay. Uh, I just wanted to kill goblins
6:43and put your guard up." But because your
6:46brain processes food kingdom differently
6:48than medieval monarchy, I think the
6:51absurd premise, literal food people,
6:53works like a Trojan horse. It feels
6:56silly at first, which lowers your guard,
6:58which then gives Brennan the opportunity
7:00to explore power, oppression,
7:02legitimacy, class warfare, etc. The
7:05players get immersed in political
7:07philosophy without even realizing it at
7:10first. And that's a heavy field dealing
7:12with real current issues, which
7:14multiplies the emotional impact of the
7:16game. The same mechanism appears over
7:18and over again in Brennan's games.
7:20Fantasy High does this with
7:22existentialism, [music]
7:24which is a rich philosophical movement
7:26that deals with the idea [music] that
7:28your nature isn't fixed at birth and
7:31that you define yourself through
7:32choices. The high school drama bit makes
7:35it feel like comedy, but philosophy is
7:37[music] everywhere. Without spoiling too
7:39much, that campaign at some point, one
7:41of the characters uses the spirit
7:43guardian spell [music] and the guardians
7:45take the shape of religious philosophers
7:49quoting texts during [music] combat.
7:51Later, her faith starts shifting and
7:54they become philosophy students.
7:56Mechanics and meaning merge and are her
7:59literal power [music] source. So that's
8:01the first mechanism, philosophy as
8:03foundation and purpose instead of
8:05decoration. But if foundations are
8:08indeed required, what do you build upon
8:10them? To see how he actually does this
8:12at the table, we need to take a look at
8:13the way he thinks about D&D's rules
8:15themselves. While doing research for
8:17this video, I found this quote from
8:19Brennan that recaps how he thinks about
8:22game systems. [music] He says, "Calling
8:24D and D a combat oriented game would
8:27sort of be like looking at a stove and
8:28being like, this has nothing to do with
8:30food. Clearly, this is for moving gas
8:32around." People say that because D and D
8:34has so many combat mechanics, you're
8:36destined to tell combat stories. I
8:39disagree. I need a game to do that for
8:41me while I take care of emotions and
8:43relationships because that is intuitive
8:46and I understand it well. I don't
8:48intuitively understand how an arrow
8:50moves through a fictional airspace. To
8:52him, the game system should handle the
8:55simulation of non-intuitive things,
8:57combat, physics, spells, and movement
8:59through space. This frees him and the
9:01players to focus on what is intuitive,
9:04emotions, relationships, and moral
9:06choices. And this plays a central role
9:08in his philosophical approach. Brennan
9:11uses rules as written for the most part
9:13and often roles in the open or announces
9:16DCs before players roll, which creates a
9:18foundation of trust. And this matters
9:21because when the mechanics are stable
9:23and fair, the link between choice and
9:26consequence becomes crystal clear. If
9:28players think you're fudging roles or
9:30changing rules, their moral choices will
9:32feel meaningless. Why spend time
9:34thinking through each [music] decision
9:36if the DM is just going to make whatever
9:38happen anyway? Reliable mechanics means
9:40that when players roll, consequences
9:43follow logically and their choices carry
9:45actual weight. It matters for the
9:47philosophy part because if you can't
9:49trust the system, then moral choices
9:51become about gaming the DM instead of
9:54wrestling with the dilemma itself. But
9:56when the mechanics are fair, the
9:58philosophy hits you on [music] a
10:00personal level. It's your choice and
10:02your values being tested, not just a
10:05story you're passively part of. So
10:07mechanics for simulation, philosophy for
10:09meaning, clean strategic division, but
10:12there's still one piece missing. Why
10:14does philosophical play create such deep
10:17emotion? And to explain this, we'll have
10:19to visit the incredible world of
10:21neuroscience. Quick disclaimer before I
10:23go on. I did take the research for this
10:25video seriously, but I'm not a
10:28neuroscientist. So, if you are one,
10:30please feel free to give everyone more
10:32details in the comments. All right. So,
10:34there's this influential theory in moral
10:36psychology called dual process theory
10:39developed by Joshua Green, a Harvard
10:41psychology professor and his colleagues.
10:44The basic idea is that we have two
10:46systems in our brains to process
10:48information. One system is fast and
10:51automatic. It's driven by emotion.
10:53empathy and immediate gut reactions. The
10:56other is slower and more deliberate.
10:58It's the reasoning part that calculates
11:00consequences and thinks through
11:03implications. And moral dilemmas are
11:05unique because when you face one, both
11:07systems activate [music] at once.
11:09Green's brain imaging studies showed
11:11that when people faced what he called
11:13personal moral dilemmas like the famous
11:16trolley problem where you have to
11:18sacrifice someone to save others, you
11:20see activity in emotion related brain
11:23regions, but you also see activity in
11:25regions associated with conscious
11:28reasoning and problem solving. Now, it's
11:30worth saying this is debated and not all
11:32researchers agree on exactly how these
11:34systems interact. And some argue it's
11:36more complex than just emotion versus
11:38reason. [music] But what's consistent
11:40across the research is that moral
11:42choices create this kind of cognitive
11:45conflict. Your gut is pulling you one
11:47way while your reasoning is pulling you
11:50another. That conflict is what makes
11:52these choices memorable. And unlike in a
11:55video game where outcomes are pre-coded
11:57and the developers already decided what
12:00happens or in a book where you have no
12:03agency at all, in a tabletop role
12:05playing game like Dn D, the uncertainty
12:07is real. Now, here's where I think
12:10Brandon's approach amplifies this
12:12effect. When a philosophy trained DM who
12:15values transparency presents a dilemma
12:18to his players, he doesn't know what
12:20they'll choose. And that
12:21unpredictability mirrors real moral
12:23life. Players are not picking from a
12:25dialogue tree, but actually working
12:27through the problem. And it made me
12:29think about this. There's this idea in
12:31philosophy called narrative identity
12:33developed by Polar, an influential 20th
12:36century French philosopher. To
12:38summarize, it's the idea that personal
12:40identity isn't just something you have,
12:43but something you construct through the
12:45stories you tell about your life. Who
12:48you are emerges from the accumulated
12:50narrative of your choices and
12:51experiences. [music]
12:52DND and other DTRPGs put this principle
12:55in action, but compressed and
12:57intensified. Each session adds to your
13:00character's narrative. A redemption arc
13:02in session 20 recontextualizes failures
13:04from session 3. Your accumulated choices
13:07converge [music]
13:07into your character's identity over
13:10time. This is where Brennan's
13:11philosophical approach hits different.
13:13In a lot of campaigns, the identity we
13:14build for our characters comes from
13:16tactical patterns. I'm the person
13:18[music] who always scouts ahead or I'm
13:20the person who charges into battle. And
13:22they matter, sure, but they're [music]
13:25not as deep. Instead, Brandon's games
13:27force his players to build identity
13:30through value choices. I'm the person
13:32who chose mercy over revenge, or I'm the
13:34person who sacrificed innocent lives to
13:36stop a greater evil. Ethical commitments
13:38instead of tactical decisions. They
13:40define who the characters are at a
13:42[music] more fundamental level. And the
13:44players are suddenly building a person
13:46through repeated ethical choices. Over a
13:49whole campaign, the players have
13:50inhabited the character's perspective.
13:52And because they made those choices over
13:55time, through difficulty, and with
13:57consequences, it feels real and creates
14:00true emotional investment that hits
14:02hard. And the cool thing is it's safe.
14:05When you take this approach, the stakes
14:07like death and broken relationships feel
14:09real and the moral resoning you go
14:11through because you are playing through
14:13it is real. But you're not harming
14:15anyone. You get to practice being the
14:18kind of person you want to be. In
14:20Brendan's case, because his antagonists
14:22embody philosophies rather than just
14:24being bad guys, players learn to think
14:27[music] systematically. You can't just
14:29kill the villain and solve the problem.
14:31You have to understand the ideology
14:33underneath and dismantle it, which is
14:36exactly how the big bad realworld
14:38problems work. They tend [music] to be
14:40systemic. So that's my dick. Brennan's
14:43secret is that he is not just a dungeon
14:45master, but a de facto philosophy
14:47teacher who [music] figured out that D&D
14:49is the best teaching tool ever invented.
14:52You're not going to become Brennan
14:53overnight, but you can start asking
14:56different questions. Start small.
14:58replace what happens next with what does
15:00this mean? For example, and if you want
15:02to take things further, there are
15:04incredible free philosophy resources out
15:07there. My favorite one by far is the
15:10Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,
15:12which taught me so much over the years.
15:15Beware of the Wikipedia effect where you
15:16enter the website and stay there
15:18forever. But I promise it's a very cool
15:20website. Go there, try to find a theme
15:22that resonates and try to imagine how it
15:24would work in a D&D campaign. Now, if
15:27you want to start creating this kind of
15:28moral complexity in your games right
15:30away, I actually made something
15:32specifically for that. It's called After
15:34the Fall, a collection of 15 morally
15:37great NPCs you can drop into any
15:39campaign. Each one has secrets,
15:41conflicting loyalties, and a kind of
15:42impossible choices that make good versus
15:45evil feel [music] too simplistic. You
15:47can get it by itself, but it's also
15:49included in my Patreon along with all my
15:51video scripts, free tools, and access to
15:54private channels on my Discord server to
15:56help you become a better DM. Links in
15:58the description if you want to check it
15:59out. Start with one question per arc,
16:02like, do ends justify means or when is
16:05rebellion justified? Create situations
16:07that will have players answer them
16:09through action and enjoy the new meaning
16:11it creates in your games. But no matter
16:13what philosophical question you explore,
16:15you need strong situations to keep it
16:18interesting. And the most important of
16:20those is the first one. So if you're
16:22tired of starting your campaigns in a
16:24tavern, click on this video next and I
16:26will show you the surprising things that
16:28happen when the villain wins in session
16:30one because it's a great way to get your
16:32game going fast.

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of The Brennan Method Every DM Should Be Stealing by Edariad, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 2,871 words across 439 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to choose a caption track available on the video.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, caption language selection, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.