DM Freedom
If I had to name an overlying theme for Matt Colville’s videos about how to run D&D, it would be exemplified by his “The Map is Not the Territory” video, and it’s something I think everyone following me aware of, and that’s simply that what the books say is how you should run a game and how people on Internet forums (including this blog) say you should run a game is not equal to how you, in the moment, should run a game.
There’s plenty of rulesets and people online who create theories as to what your ruling should be on a subject, but in the end it’s your game, and your mission is to provide fun to your players. As a DM you have to be prepared to improvise in the moment and decide whether or not in the moment you should enforce or alter a rule.
So, this is primarily a blog for DM ideas (obviously). I will never tell you flat out something like “only Arcane Tricksters can turn mage hand invisible,” although I will totally say something like that in games I participate in. I’m not so much a rules “lawyer” as what I would call a rules “herald,” I have a lot of experience with relatively new DMs that I figure I should point out the actual rules to, but if they say otherwise than that’s their ruling.
As Matt Colville says int he video, “The map is not the territory. The rules are not the game.” You want me to make a stat block for a monster or NPC? Great. You want to ask me how I put a story or a world together? Great. You want to ask me what the official rules are? Great. Just keep in mind that there is no rule saying you have to obey the rules. You can change the stat blocks I give you, you can change the process of worldbuilding how you like, you can change the rules.