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Lich Please! Epiosde 14
87 Plays2 years ago
This week the boys are joined by the fantastic encountersmith as they go over all the aspects for dnd and dming! Sharing their tips are tricks.
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Transcript
Introduction and Guests
00:00:07
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to episode 14 of the Lich Pleads podcast. Almost said episode 13 there. I'm here, as always, with Alex. And today we have a TikTok creator with us. And Countersmith is going to, we're going to be chatting D&D again.
00:00:26
Speaker
And just, yeah, we'll get right into it.
Guest's D&D Journey
00:00:29
Speaker
Um, so what was your introduction to D and D? Like, how did you, how far does it go back? What was your first sister? Sure. Well, first of all, thanks for having me. This is fun. I can talk D and D for ages. Um, and, uh, I think my first iteration, I think in high school, which for me was 2008 ish. I had to date myself too much. I think I started with 3.5, like briefly, just kind of not knowing anything. Um,
00:00:55
Speaker
And that didn't last very long. You know, like first group, no one knows how they're playing. That group falls apart. Fast forward, like probably the past. I've been playing fifth edition for like probably the past seven years and the idea. Yeah, seven years, sorry.
00:01:15
Speaker
Um, and I, it was a work thing, you know, like someone was like, uh, I think nowadays everyone gets into D and D through like critical role and all that jazz. Uh, I'm fender mine. I work in entertainment and one of our customers was, uh, just getting into the adventure zone, which is more unique for someone's first like iteration into it. And, uh, she like brought the book work. She was like, you all are going to learn this and play this with me.
00:01:39
Speaker
And I was like, all right, cool, whatever.
Becoming a Dungeon Master
00:01:42
Speaker
You know, I dabbled and she made her boyfriend DM who didn't want to do it. And, uh, great guy, super smart guy sucked at it. And I was like, you know what? Let me, I'll try it. Let me do it. And, uh, that's kind of what it's just been doing that for the past seven years with different groups of people. Yeah. Yeah.
00:02:06
Speaker
That's one of the more noble stories we've had of our people. I've got nothing to do with D&D, yeah. Yeah. I think that's becoming more common, though, is people just being like, ah, you know what? I'll give DM me a go, and then just bring it. Right. And I think at the end of the time, I was into RPGs and stuff like that. And I went through my rules lawyer phase. So when he started getting everything, I was like, oh, I'm going to learn how to play. And when he started getting everything wrong, I was like, stop. I'll do it.
00:02:40
Speaker
Yeah, that's nice. Did you start on a module? We started on a module. And then when I picked it up, I tried to continue the module.
Modules vs Homebrew
00:02:50
Speaker
And we finished it out with like half of the original group remaining. So I think the other big common thing with people just starting is like, hey, let's all try to play D&D together, all nine of us.
00:03:04
Speaker
and that gets overwhelming and too much for people and no one knows how to rebalance modules who's made for four players to nine players. So once we've wrapped up that, I think we ended up doing Dragon, Horde of the Dragon Queen. I think that was my first complete adventure that I finished. Not a great adventure, structure-wise, but we made it work and it was a lot of fun.
00:03:32
Speaker
Hoarding the Dragon Queen, I think, was the first one I tried running with my group of friends. And I think I've mentioned it before on the podcast, but they got to that first village with a cult dragon attack in the Blue Dragon. Walked in, did one remain, kind of went, why do we care about these people? You played Brandon Lance, and I was like, no. You're on the carriage, safe away from the city. And you're like, oh, I guess we should go do something about that, or not. There's no motivation for your players to go do that. So bless my players heart for running into the fire and starting that.
00:04:06
Speaker
Yeah. Fair enough. I mean, yeah, I'm sure I experienced that module a sample grade. Yeah. That actually brings us perfectly into the question of modules or homecoming. What do you prefer? That's such a good question. And I think my opinion on that has changed so much. Like, so, uh, Hoard of the Dragon Queen was like the first module, maybe like only one out of like two or three modules I've ever like completed front to back.
00:04:33
Speaker
And it ended in the most unsatisfying way. So when I ended it, I was like, I'm only doing homebrew. Module stuff doesn't work. It doesn't understand my players. You can't tailor it to your players. So I was strictly homebrew from that. And then after doing years of homebrew, I was like, man, this is a lot of work.
00:04:55
Speaker
Uh, so I've recently started playing with modules again, just like, uh, so it's easier for me to run games while like making content and working my day job and stuff. And I, you know, this might be a cop out answer, but I really think the perfect. Uh, ways is to blend the two is to like, start with your module, allow your players to like gain those experiences together. And then from there, start exploring their individual backstories and see how they can weave in completely change the module.
00:05:29
Speaker
I think in a way there's some, almost a misconception that some people have that modules are easy to run. If you're starting out with a DM, modules are easy to do what you should be doing. Modules are hard because if they go off pace at one point and you change something, that could mess something up further down the line. And if you're a new DM, that can really stress and freak you out.
00:05:49
Speaker
So yeah, I think it's very into the M's have a much better time running modules. Cause you know, the degree of which you can change things and even that improv aspect down the line where I change this, I can easily. And I think because a module structured in a certain way, you're too scared at the beginning to change things. Like you're like, you, this would be really cool if a module structure like that's cause my players doing this, but I'm too worried to like play along with that because I'm worried that something down the line will get ruined because of it.
00:06:16
Speaker
Um, so it's like really being able to let go and be like, yeah, cool. Like we're running, uh, uh, sent into Avernus, uh, because I think a lot of people are because of Baldur's Gate and like, we are not even yet. And the book is like a loose guideline at this point, you know? And it's just like, it's like having like the, like, okay, if my players don't do what the book wants them to do.
00:06:41
Speaker
I'll just figure it out and then I can just go back to the book from reference to make sure I'm like generally going in a direction that this thing wants me to go in. Yeah, yeah, that's definitely the way I think to do a module and not take it like a Bible and read it verbatim because nobody wants that. Yeah, yeah, definitely. I think modules have cool things to take from them as well. That's where the whole in the campaign on preparing to do.
00:07:09
Speaker
That's where I got the idea from doing a one shot before the campaign starts where it leads to the mission that starts the campaign. I'm sure there's a module out there that someone told me about that does the same thing, where it starts with a one shot and something big happens with the one shot and then next session you use your campaign characters to go investigate it and that's like the mission. There's cool stuff to pull from modules, yeah, because it's literally, it's written by people who do it as a job to make things, so yeah.
00:07:38
Speaker
There's definitely cool things to get out of modules. And I don't discredit modules by that because it's like writing a module for sale, for instance, is a really hard job. If you're home brewing and your players have already given characters and backstories, you have so much to start building off of. And it's so easy to combine that. But when you're making a module, literally anybody can play this with any character. That's hard to do. You can't make it that well-rounded. Yeah.
00:08:09
Speaker
And you've got to make it real for other people, not just yourself, which is something that I have to think about a lot, because I'll write in the shorthand. I know what that means. That's fine. And then I send it to you guys. I'm like, huh, that's the clear for you guys to read.
00:08:24
Speaker
Yeah, I have two separate documents. One is everything I've written that makes sense in my head. And the other is this is what you are going to read and understand because you are going to get a clue of the way my thoughts are working. Yeah, I think a lot of like DMs and creative types like have the ADHD gene in them. So like it's this, I have like carried this notebook around with me everywhere just over when idea strikes because I can't do it on my phone. My phone's too distracting.
00:08:50
Speaker
And then like, if you were, if I were to give you that right now, you'd be like some insane person. This belongs to an insane person. Nothing here makes sense. It's just scratches barely written on the side of other documents. And it's a mess. It's a mess in there, but it makes sense to me.
00:09:07
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I just, when I have an idea, usually comes through in my sleep as well. I'll wake up and ah, this, this would be cool. Write it all down and then might forget about it and then come back to it later. Yeah. That's, that's 10 to be how it goes. Um, so have you been more, more of a DM from like your, your D and D career, I guess, uh, than a player or has it been quite balanced? Like,
00:09:35
Speaker
being have you been more of a more of a DM than a player throughout your career or has it been very like a balanced definitely more of a DM I do enjoy playing whenever I get the chance but you know I have that forever DM genes the DM is always in need so like and I enjoy doing it so I definitely don't mind taking that seat when there's so many people who are still trying to get into the game and learn
00:09:57
Speaker
But I do regularly encourage my players to, if they're interested in DM, I'm like, yeah, do it. Ask me any questions. I will be the quiet cleric in the back to support that role. And if you have any world's questions, I'll just answer it. But whatever. I enjoy watching other people go from player to DM. I enjoy watching that jump in other people because it's cool.
00:10:24
Speaker
Yeah, I think I'm definitely experiencing that with you now, Alex, and being like watching, especially with that one shot you were running. I was like, I'm enjoying it. It was really fun.
00:10:36
Speaker
It's been an interesting leap. I don't think I'd ever fully commit to making such a world over this long of a period. But yeah, it is very enjoyable preparing the world for the end. So I'm excited to start DMing at some point whenever we
Encouraging New DMs and Player Confidence
00:10:52
Speaker
get the chance. I'll get on my soapbox a little bit. And I'll even go as far as saying I think that is a lot of current Dungeon Master's responsibility is to encourage other people to pick up the DM mental because I think that's what will continue to get this hobby
00:11:06
Speaker
adopted and you know there's a lot of people worried about like AI taking over the DM role and like that's only gonna happen if you don't encourage your players to also start taking the DM role.
00:11:20
Speaker
I think a lot of people now are saying that they've watched every episode of Critical Role, every episode of Engine 20, all of these shows, and they're like, I've never played, I don't think I can DM. You can definitely DM. If you've watched everything that's out there, 100% you can DM. You probably know that it was better than most players, because you've consumed so much content by now. I think I was watching Critical Role season two, I was in the middle of it, and I was starting to realize that Matt Mercer's amazing, of course.
00:11:50
Speaker
I realize I think I know the rules better than some of those players because they don't DM often. So like a lot of those rules, like as a barbarian, you don't need to remember all the spell casting rules and stuff. So it's like, if you've watched all of that and you've even you've like got to experience where all of those characters gone through and the different things Matt has put them through, Brendan has put them through, like you 100% have more than enough to like stumble through your first one shot, you know?
00:12:19
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. 100%. Yeah. So obviously you've been a DM more, but seven years is a while to play D&D. So favorite class and subclass.
Favorite Classes and Homebrewing
00:12:33
Speaker
Favorite class 100% is Paladin. I love Paladin. I'm a sucker for the knight in shining armor. I like to play
00:12:45
Speaker
Um, I like, I like how you can be very melee heavy. You can be very support heavy. Uh, and I think over the additions to like the way they've like changed paladin to not be so religious based. It's really is just like.
00:12:59
Speaker
You believe in something so hard that it produces magic. You know, like that's dope. It's very like Green Lantern of them. Yeah. And I like that aspect a lot for sure. And like slag stacking and all that stuff. You can you can do some pretty fun, crazy stuff with Paladin for sure. Yeah, that's fun. Yeah, I think it's a good class if you want to like power game. It's also a good class if you want to like lean into the RP a bit too. Subclasses, man, there's so many of them.
00:13:28
Speaker
I think more than like a very effective subclass, I like a subclass that has like a really good theme. So I think like right off the bat, off the top of my head is like the armor for artificers. It was like, they knew what they were doing. They were like, someone wants to play Iron Man at your table. So we'll just give you Iron Man, plain and simple, and just not call it that. But like, it's exactly what it is. And I just love that. It's such a theme and I dig it a lot.
00:14:00
Speaker
Yeah, actually, I agree. I do like theme subclasses. My first character was a Dragonborn monk with Way of the Ancestral Dragon. It's just a dragon with dragon stuff. I love that so much. Yeah, it's fun. It is really fun. I do agree with the theme subclasses as opposed to the like. I love that so much because it's like technically, if you want to if you want to be like rules or like feats, like it contradicts itself. Like the Dragonborn already has a breath weapon and you gain breath weapon like abilities as monk.
00:14:29
Speaker
But it themes so well, just like, do it because it's fun. And I love that. That's so great. Yeah. Yeah, it was great. Because you get wings as well. You get the wings at like level seven or whatever it is when you step for the wind. So straight up, you could just basically become a small dragon. Like by that point, you could just become a small dragon. No, I love that. Definitely. Yeah, no, I. Yeah, I do agree with you.
00:14:59
Speaker
the same stuff. It's definitely becoming more common with people shifting away from the more optimized classes to sort of build that they know are not optimal in terms of like mechanics. But they're just fun to do because the roleplay is so much fun. So I back up what you're explaining right now. I've actually broken down into stages of players. There's three stages of players.
00:15:20
Speaker
And like the first stage is like the person who's like, I want to play D&D because I've seen it on the internet. I have no idea what I'm doing. Those are the most fun because they don't know the rules. So they'll try anything. And if you're a DM who takes that, you want to like topple that statue over the crowd of goblins, like roll a strength check and then it works. And they lose their mind and they become obsessed with the game at that point.
00:15:44
Speaker
And then you get the second phase once they become obsessed. They're like, this was so much fun. I'm going to be the best at this game. I'm going to have the optimized character. I'm going to have the Paladin Warlock hybrid smited in. And then they realized that, oh, being OP at this game, this isn't always fun.
00:16:03
Speaker
So I will use stage three player is the person who's like, I'm going to use all my like very meta game knowledge plus remembering all the crazy stuff I did when I started and merge that together. And that's when you get like the most unique characters and crazy outcomes. And then also like those are the players who really benefit at your table, especially with newer players. So that's that I watching that journey and some of my players have been really cool.
00:16:32
Speaker
That's very true. I think my favourite personal counter-life blade was a bugbear paladin barbarian raised by like an order of knights. Yes! But like had that primal energy inside of him and just at some point just throw down his arm and say, okay I'm doing ham now. It's the 10 foot replay. So much fun to play. Yeah. Which is horrific. I think we were in some cobalt den.
00:17:01
Speaker
And there was like, there's a small hole for small creatures. I was like, I can fit in there. And the DM's like, no, you can't. You're like eight feet tall. And I'm like, I can. And then we were like, how does that even work? Like biologically, how are you folding this like huge creature into the space for small creatures? Which is horrific, but so much fun to play. Oh man. Yeah. Yeah. No, I do, I do love the, uh,
00:17:23
Speaker
the transition. I'm still level two player at the moment. I'll get some meta gaming at some point. More time than not, I spend time sat there just creating characters for fun. I have a lot just sat there created. I won't use them all. There's a highly unlikely chance I'll touch most of the characters I made.
00:17:47
Speaker
But they're just there. They're good to have just in case. Again, I don't get to play a lot. So I'll make characters. I'll have an interesting idea for a cool build. And then if a long enough time horizon happens, I don't get to play. I'm like, cool. That just becomes a dope NPC. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
00:18:07
Speaker
So you homebrew a lot. Do you homebrew a lot of subclasses and classes and races and stuff, or is it just mostly? I do a lot of monsters. I've played around with some subclasses. I like to adopt new players to my games, so I don't like confusing them with like, you know, very complicated some classes. But for some players who are like, hey, I've been playing this for a while, I'm kind of bored. I'm like, I have this subclass idea. You want to play with that? And it kind of adds like a more in-depth mechanic.
00:18:36
Speaker
or usually magic items. I think that's a great way to like, instead of coming up with a whole new subclass, you're like, oh, you want a new mechanic to play with? Here's a sword that if you hit three different enemies with, like it unlocks this new ability. So it kind of unlocks miniature goals within the combat other than just trying to win. That's really more satisfying to the advanced players while the beginner players can still figure out like, what's the difference between an action and a bonus action and all that stuff.
00:19:09
Speaker
Yeah, I think items are a great way to sort of get used to homebrewing and sort of get more into it. So you're getting DMs, if you are looking at homebrewing, items are a great way because you very quickly find out if it's overpowered or not. And you're not like 10 levels deep in the subclass and you go, oh, no. Yeah. And if I make something and I'm like, I don't know if this is balanced or if you're not comfortable with like balancing weapons like that, just give that to players with the knowledge of like, hey, if this destroys my game, I'm going to pull it back a little bit or like,
00:19:39
Speaker
And that's okay. If it's for their benefit and they're fun, they're most likely to understand. So for people who are just getting used to home brewing items, what would be your main advice, tips, tricks, or things that you've learned to try and get them going? I would say the expectation for home brewing items and abilities and stuff like that is I don't want to overpower this character and then they don't have any challenging encounters.
00:20:08
Speaker
First of all, don't worry about your encounters being too easy. I noticed that if I balance an encounter or mechanic and they just wipe the floor with it, I'm more upset about it than my players are. My players are usually pretty stoked at the fact they just destroyed this thing I designed to be kind of difficult. So one, don't worry about that. Two, I think,
00:20:34
Speaker
adding a thematical recharge to your weapons or abilities. So like, in my opinion, I think Wizards of the Coast gets a little lazy with some of their items and it's just like, hey, you can do this as amount of times as your proficient bonuses per day or once per day or whatever. And instead make it something a little more thematical and fun like
00:20:55
Speaker
You have this one huge ability on this Katana, right? And then once you use it, you can't use it again till like it's blessed by a dragon priest from Tiamat or whatever. So then as you being the DM who controls the world, you can control how often that recharge event happens. Like you control how often they can meet a dragon priest of Tiamat, you know?
00:21:19
Speaker
So if it's overpowered, you're like, OK, you only know one he's going to charge you a lot to recharge it. Or if it's not that strong, you're like, you have a dragon priest in your hideout who just waits for you, you know? Yep. Yeah, that's very cool. Yeah, so if you're unsure if it's too powerful, just make the recharge mechanic thematical, and then you can adjust that in your world when it doesn't feel like you're constantly adjusting the weapon itself. Or item, whatever.
00:21:48
Speaker
And that's also like a hundred times more satisfying to the players. That's so much more enjoyable to do than just being a tool for you as a DM to like, if you have that player who cares more about combat, then, then the story element you're currently on and be like, Hey, you know, you can only recharge this with the Tiamat priest. Uh, this Tiamat priest you heard is in the next town.
00:22:11
Speaker
You go find them, recharges your sword. It also turns out they have key information that progresses your main story plot, you know, so that you can almost interweave what they want mechanically with what you want thematically. Yeah.
00:22:30
Speaker
So let's jump, I think this takes us nicely into our first section, which is commonly homebrewed rules that people have, that I guess have sort of become in people's minds, brawls rather than homebrewed rules.
Rules and Mechanics Preferences
00:22:44
Speaker
And one I've seen quite commonly used is changing inspiration from an advantage roll to a free- I don't think I've heard of that one.
00:22:58
Speaker
I don't, I've never used it. I haven't heard of it. I think it could be a lot of fun. I think like a, a free nap 20 definitely is like, yeah, come on, hold on. Like it's a lot, right? And I think it really determines on like what you, you, again, there's a million different rules for not twenties at like that change from table to table. So like, if it's like critical wise, like critical damage, uh, sure. Uh, like I think, cause then in that point one, you've made inspiration.
00:23:27
Speaker
more valuable and one of the biggest problems in my opinion is like players forget they have it and Then again, it's one of the things that you as the DM control The the only problem is when you like yeah, I gave you inspiration beginning the game, you know one year of real-time later I just remembered you had it for this epic role, you know and I don't know I I think that's fun. I I don't hate it like obviously that can come and bite you in the butt later, but I
00:23:55
Speaker
Yeah. I think I enjoy getting bit in the butt sometimes. Like it, it, yeah, exactly. It keeps me on my toes. It keeps me hanging. Yeah. So I, I'm down. Yeah. Yeah. I think.
00:24:09
Speaker
No, I agree. I think you can definitely add to the roleplay element as well. Like, for instance... Right, of course you agree. You're a player. Yeah, of course. But like... Yeah, of course you agree. Yeah, but like... Yeah, but for instance, it could be... You could have just monologued. You could have just had a moment. And then you roll your dice and then you get like a one and it's awful. And then it just ruins the moment. But then if you've got a three and that's just funny, you just go, yeah.
00:24:39
Speaker
This slaps. This goes really well. Though I know people do have their own like rules for if something cool is going to happen and you want it, just don't roll. We'll give it to you. But I think it's pretty nice. Right. Because I think you put that in your players hands a bit more than just like, oh, it's your it's your moment. I'm just going to let it work. You're like, I want it to work. I think even something that to be a little interesting to like tack on to that is like only allow
00:25:05
Speaker
Uh, so if you gave someone inspiration, be like, cool, this is a free nat 20. You're not allowed to use it for yourself. Like you can only use it for a different player because then it adds that, uh, access interaction between your players a little bit. And then it becomes like a bonding moment. You're like, I'm going to give my spiritual, you can even make it thematic. Like it's like a note of inspiration inside of you that you can deliver to someone else. And like, then you get to pick the key moment.
00:25:31
Speaker
that someone else might be very distraught of rolling their nat 1. You're like, you know what? I'm giving you my thing. It's a nat 20. And then that could lead to good RP or just really, especially when you're adding new players to your table and those players might not know each other personally. It's a great way to bond in character because those bonds become real, as we all know.
00:25:53
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. That's taken the idea to another. That's really good. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. That's definitely improved that. Yeah. A lot better than advantage because the thing is advantage as well. It can just still be bad. You can still roll bad twice. I have inspiration for this really cool. I was like, it was like, I was like roll initiative and she was like, wait, I have this fact. And I was like, Oh, that's a good point. Roll deception. Nat one. And I was like, God, you have inspiration. I always try to remind them inspirations are like bet.
00:26:23
Speaker
Nat 2, I'm like, well, all right, roll initiative. It doesn't always feel as satisfying to use your inspiration, which is probably why some people forget that they have it. Yeah, definitely. So do you have any sort of homebrew rules that you've been using for so long that you're just naturally part of your game? I have several. And then I'll kind of like interweave them depending on what classes my players are or what they find enjoyable.
00:26:54
Speaker
I think one that I know a lot of people are going to have problems with is rolling for hit points. I hate rolling for hit points and like. But like I also understand that it's also not satisfying just taking the average. So like I let my players roll and then if they don't at least get the average, I give them the average because.
00:27:19
Speaker
rolling a one sucks if you're like, okay, let's reroll that once like Matt Mercer then rolling the two sucks like and Yeah, it's like the thing is like I'm gonna control the monsters you fight so like I if you guys have more health than the average player I'll compensate for that later. That's my job But like I want your level ups to feel as powerful as they are and
00:27:46
Speaker
Yeah, I think it also comes down to people who are quite hard on rolling abilities at the beginning of the game. Yeah. Some people can be real sort of sticklers about that. And it's kind of like, because you can get all under 10. And if someone's like, that's just not fun. I don't like, because nobody, yeah, I don't like my players feeling like they're just kind of like, if someone could have someone have like full 20s, it's unlikely, but they could do it.
00:28:17
Speaker
And you got someone with all under 10, not a single person. I think that is probably my other most. I think, so when you're going back to my most used homebrew rules, I come up with a standard array. Like I make my own standard array, which is a little better than what's in fifth edition. I'm just like, go ham. You know, like if you want to pick the optimal race to go with your 16, I'm giving you to start with a plus four, go for it. You know, like I don't like, you know,
00:28:43
Speaker
especially playing boulders gate, I think I noticed it the most with like the point the point by system being like more used. And I think that doesn't feel good either. Like I have a build in mind, but like if I had that one extra point, this build would be perfect. Like I want people to get that satisfaction of actually making the building work.
00:29:04
Speaker
Yeah, no, I feel like if you're if you're making a character, let's say you're making a character who's a fighter and their backstory is that they're a failed night. I feel like if they're failed night, they deserve that 20 in strength. I mean, they've trained like just role play wise. It makes sense. Yeah, no, I definitely I definitely agree with that. Do you use crit, crit fumble tails tables and create tables? Oh, yeah, I don't fly when they create fail. No, I don't. I don't use tables.
00:29:33
Speaker
I usually come up with it on the fly because I think you need to, every situation's that different. So like, you know, borrowing from other game systems is huge. And I borrow a lot from Blades in the Dark. I feel like if D&D wasn't as popular, I would only be playing Blades in the Dark because it's such a good system, especially for storytelling. And I think Blades in the Dark really emphasizes like, degrees of failure. So like,
00:30:02
Speaker
If someone rolls a Nat 1 on an attack roll, you just missed, right? Whatever. If you roll a Nat 1 on picking a lock, but behind that door is the rest of your adventure, why would you make them fail that in an epic way? There's different ways you could do that. An example I use all the time is if you're picking a lock, the adventure is on the other side, be like, sweet.
00:30:26
Speaker
the door opens because a guard just opened it on their side roll initiative. That is your failed condition, not the fact that you failed at picking the lock. You can add consequences without it just being a flat success or failure. It makes it more interesting that way too.
00:30:44
Speaker
I think that's also because I do something similar. Everyone runs the run differently. But the people who have a disagreement with crit fails and critises in out of combat and ability scores, that's their biggest issue. It's like you could ruin your whole adventure by giving your player a critical success on a conversation with someone that's critical to the adventure.
00:31:07
Speaker
But you can change that you control the degree of that critical success. If you don't want them to be completely agreeing, you can be like, okay, well, they agree with you, but like, they're still wary of what's going on. Yeah, 100%. It could just be like, again, if you're having this, like, be like, you're trying to convince someone to help you in this with their army, like, you're trying to get someone to lend you their army or whatever. And you just like, Hey, can we use your army? That's 20. That's not satisfying. You know, like,
00:31:34
Speaker
But you can still reward that in different ways. He's going to listen to you now, and in fact, on the next good point you make, you'll roll that persuasion check with advantage. Just let them know the next time you're talking to this guy about this topic, the DC is going to be lower. There's different ways to reward and punish.
00:31:57
Speaker
based on Nat 20s and Nat 1s, not just like, you did it, you didn't do it, because that is what will stop the momentum of your adventure for sure. Yeah. And that's so much less satisfying for the player to just be like, oh, the army's working. It's fine. We win this. Boom. I don't want to attack classes. I feel like that is like a bard stereotype.
00:32:24
Speaker
I hit on anything. I roll a nat 20. It's like, yeah, it's just like that meme has established. Like I can do anyone of anything with a nat 20. And I'm like, that's, it's not, that's not how that works.
00:32:39
Speaker
Yeah, they really enforce the inner in borders get as well because in borders getting actually is just a critical stress Success straight up like for everything There's the the place I'm not gonna try and say too much because you and you haven't played the whole thing but there's the the place with the vaults and the DC is 99 and if you roll the 20 you just pass and
00:33:01
Speaker
He's like, okay, that's cool. Then just why bother making the DC and 99? Just make it like just outside the range of a 20 or something. Not to like completely discredit them because I think it can be fun. I think that's what makes D&T so volatile. Like no matter what you try, there is a 5% chance you're going to nail it and there's a 5% chance you're going to ruin it. I was talking to my wife the other day and I was like, you know what? D&D feels a lot like the Fast and the Furious movies where it's just like,
00:33:30
Speaker
I'm just going to go for this. It doesn't make sense physically, but we're really good at rolling that 20s. So like anytime they're trying to run a car with a vault and hit someone with that vault, they just rolled in that 20 on that maneuver. And it's just like that, that, that party's really good at rolling that 20s. And that's what makes those movies fun. So that's kind of what makes D and D fun too.
Memorable DM Moments
00:33:52
Speaker
i've never considered that maybe because it's like anything you do in dnd is unrealistic anything in movies isn't realistic it just you know those are the times you roll nat 20s or your dm is really good with inspiration or whatever yeah yeah and to be fair yeah that you brought it up and it makes sense yeah i'm not gonna lie when you say it like that it does it does make sense definitely um
00:34:16
Speaker
So we tend to ask everyone, or most people who come on who DM and who are players, favorite moment as a player and favorite moment as a DM, or worst moment, whatever works for you. I'd say as a DM, ideally one of my favorite moments, and I think this is actually something that most DMs don't like, but when your players completely outsmart you and ruin your encounter, it's one of my favorite things.
00:34:46
Speaker
I ran this adventure with like some of the original people I played with and like I was just getting into homebrew and like feeling my way with game mechanics so I had this whole adventure where like they were on a cart heading to this town they get attacked by this like commander who's on a wyvern and I homebrewed the shit out of that commander he's got legendary actions he's going he's gonna ruin their day they're flying down he's attacking the cart I have homebrew mechanics on like the bravery of their driver to see if they like ditch or not
00:35:16
Speaker
And my warlock, she was like, I'm gonna cast Suggestion. And I'm like, whatever. I have so many legendary resistances. He's got good stats. She was like, no, I'm casting on the Wyvern. And I'm like, oh, okay. And the Wyvern fails. She was like, cool. I want the Wyvern to fly as far and as high as possible away from here. And it's like, I had to take a moment of like,
00:35:46
Speaker
I could say the Wyvern doesn't understand you, right? Cause it doesn't know languages, but it's trained. So that doesn't make sense. I could say it's all one stat block and he can use his legendary resistance to save it. And then like the energy from the rest of the players were like, hell yeah, that's awesome. And in that moment I was like, why would I take that away from them? So I let it happen. Cause I didn't think of it and it was extremely clever to me. So that Wyvern just like F'd off.
00:36:16
Speaker
forever like for a it's an eight hour long spell so we flew as far as high as possible for eight hours and it doesn't make sense that the captain would just like jump off it at that point you know I think that was my favorite yeah it's like whenever like yeah I have this whole mechanic I yeah I spent a lot of time on it but the thing is you didn't experience half of it so I'll just use it again later
00:36:43
Speaker
I think we had a sort of a similar encounter where the party had split, two of them had remained in town, and three of them had gone. They had a slug, and they're level two. So this is going to be like a, oh shit, this is going to be a kind of rough encounter. And Paladin was like, command, no you don't, compel duel. Took the damage, and the rest of you just pummeled in. I was like, wow.
00:37:05
Speaker
this is for me like this is going to be the gritty encounter and they split up and I was like oh no what's going to happen and then it was like nothing and I'm like yeah not only was that like awesome but that's got to be so satisfying for your paladin especially if they're like I'm going to be the tank of the group like they did it they nailed that success of like I tanked this and made this so easy that's so cool yeah absolutely
00:37:31
Speaker
Yeah, one of my favorite moment. I think it was like a top three moment in the campaign so far. It was definitely it was very enjoyable. Yeah. And do you have a favorite moment as like being a player? It doesn't happen often, but I will say one of the guys I used to play with a lot. He he's a he's a fantastic DM. He he does a podcast shout out to fandom encounters. Matt.
00:38:00
Speaker
He's he's he actually works for Disney World. He's like starting to work his way up to the Imagineer ladder. And so he's he's a he's a freaking genius. And I think the player like he was like, hey, on my next thing, I'm trying to do this pirate world. Do you mind like, you know, running in like a short adventure with me so we can kind of like, you know, I can kind of establish the world and figure it out. And I was like, yeah, that'd be awesome. Never get to play. Played an artificer for the first time.
00:38:28
Speaker
And I didn't mean to give him like a crazy backstory. I was just like, Hey, I'm a alchemist. Uh, what the alchemist subclass, uh, he's a rich guy, became a doctor. Wife became a werewolf. I'm trying to figure out a cure for like canthropy because in this world, magic wasn't a thing. And so like we were going on this like adventure and I, he had perfectly tied in like, so like I'm looking for ingredients, legendary ingredients or in magical information on like during curses.
00:38:57
Speaker
And we were obviously doing something very different than that. Um, but then he had perfectly lied in like a library. Like we had a fight in the library and then in the library was books specifically based on ancient curses. And I just like didn't see it coming. And the fact that I was like, you perfectly tied in my like half-assed backstory to like, I can save my wife. Like I had an emotional moment where like I'm one step closer to saving my wife and like I
00:39:27
Speaker
I realized from that point on, I was like, that feels awesome as a player of like, you took something I made and you added it to your creative world. Like now I know the feeling I need to target in on my players and like making it feel like their, their story there in like their ideas are perfectly woven into mine. So it seems natural. And like, it was always like that. And that was probably my biggest moment. I wasn't expecting it because it was like a trial run.
00:39:55
Speaker
But yeah, I think that was probably my favorite moment as a player, even though it was mostly RP. Yeah, no, my favorite moments as being a player is similar as well. When your backstory pops up in a campaign, when you least expect it, it is one of the best feelings as a player. Yeah, and the other day I saw a post in a D&D group chat, and it was someone looking for players for a campaign, and they were like, oh,
00:40:24
Speaker
uh the backstory is for you uh not for the story in this campaign i was like that's cool but i was like i mean yeah you can do what you want it's your world but your players i feel bad for they're not gonna care about their backstory a lot because they're gonna write a backstory and never see it in the story if you've just said like that i was like okay you know you do you but
00:40:46
Speaker
i'd hate for players to go through the effort of making a whole backstory and then never getting to experience any of it uh throughout the campaign that's a that's a great example of how i think lone wolf players come about like that that lone wolf player mentality i think that's how that gets breed because like if i want to like feel an adventure
00:41:09
Speaker
And I don't trust my DM to actually do anything with it. Well, my whole lone wolf Batman, my parents died thing. Like that can all be internal, even though it's going to affect my players negatively. But like, I don't have to rely on my DM to fulfill that like self loathing lone wolf feeling. I don't have to rely on anybody because the whole idea is that you're a lone wolf. I think that's how that starts. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I think if you're
00:41:38
Speaker
asking people to make characters, you have a responsibility to have them tie to the world. Because the players have to exist within the world rather than the world exists for the players, which is what I see a lot of people doing. I mean, they're probably new DMs and you get that sort of something you get more used to, but it's so more satisfying to have the players really care about something. Like you guys have
00:42:03
Speaker
conspiracy chat for the campaign and that's I think one of my greatest accomplishments yeah I mean that you've got this it feels so great to know that you've got two now yeah we've got multiple no we've got we've got one for another another player's backstory and then one for the main story of the campaign yeah we've got two chats I think that is yeah
00:42:25
Speaker
I think that it does help for a DM when like, you know, your players are talking about like, I think it's behind your back. You're like, yes, I did it. They're all scared. I mean, I, I, yeah, I'm a law gram in myself. I have a plethora. I, I, every week in and out, I'm thinking about what is, what is going to happen. The thing is I don't take notes. I just think of it like permanently, like 10% of my brain is working on the campaign.
00:42:54
Speaker
Um, and I would love to give the same to, uh, to players in the future. Um, which is why I'm doing, um, for my campaign, it's going to be a pirate world one. Uh, but I'm getting the players to, it's going to be the same group that, uh, you wins running for that. I'm a player in, uh, I'll be DMing for after the arc one. Uh, but I'm getting the players for their backstory to do their backstory. And then we can make a subclass based on your backstory. So it all perfectly ties together. Um,
00:43:24
Speaker
And then I said, you guys can have any relation to any god if you want. I'm doing Greek gods. I was like, if you guys want to talk to gods, let me know. I will happily create a whole persona for you lot to message you during the game, to bother you about stuff, just to be whatever god you want me to be. Yeah. Because I prefer the players to be fully, I think it'd be more interesting to be fully immersed with their backstories as well than the story in the world.
00:43:53
Speaker
To that extent, I think that's awesome. And having a mixture can be difficult. If you have that one player who's like, a lot of my tables are like, hey, my character used to be a gladiator, I think. And that's their backstory. And then my wizard's like, here's a three-part essay on my backstory. I don't necessarily think a lot of them are wrong. And I think we see a lot of examples of people who are like,
00:44:23
Speaker
Here's my
00:44:43
Speaker
weave your backstory into the main story until we have some like room so you can really discover who your character is other than who you think they're gonna be because I've seen so many times where like the character you show me and the character that hits the table are two different characters. That's I mean we've experienced that I think in our campaign currently and I
00:45:05
Speaker
I've heard people say that they don't let play ending backstories during the campaign. No, absolutely. Because you and Tyr, Michael, have both sent me new drafts of your backstory, like six months in. And I'm like, absolutely keep editing it, keep adding to it, keep changing it. Because you're going to, I mean, Dan's opinion, wanting to be a night owl, wanting to be a trader. It's changed, things have changed. That's good. Absolutely. It all matters. I think Dan's a good sign in general, because that's your trust.
00:45:34
Speaker
That that means it's like I could just stick with my night background, right? Just because you may or may not use it. But if I'm like constantly wanting to change it, it's because I trust my DMS going to do something interesting with that. And so a lot of the times when I get players whom I've played before and they don't want to go too into deep story or two in the backstory, it's because like I know they've been burned.
00:45:54
Speaker
of like someone not like using their creativity as part of their game. So they're too, they don't want to waste the energy or they're too hesitant or they, you know, they don't want it to be ignored. Um, so there's usually like, you know, you get that a lot with people you've played with a lot. Like the more you play with someone, they're like, Oh, I'm going to give you this. There's a trust there. Yeah. Yeah. I have one getting backstory. I'm kind of a, I want, I'm not sure the bullet points,
00:46:21
Speaker
I don't want to, wall of text is kind of off putting sometimes. Give me just straight bullet points of like important aspects to your backstory. If you want to give me like a paragraph, that's cool. It's going to be tough to read because I'm already going through so much. Yes, 100% bullet points are definitely my thing. Because that's what I'm going to turn your backstory into anyway. So I'm going to turn it to bullet points. Yeah, but yeah, it's extremely dark. Yeah, I mean, yeah, no, I agree. Bullet points.
00:46:49
Speaker
I like reading big documents full of words. I'm not going to lie. I law dive documents. I said to everyone, if you don't want to write me like a four page backstory, I will read the whole thing and I will remember it because I enjoy law. So yeah, bullet points. I can say it's probably more convenient, but I do love. I do love a good old juicy document full of backstory. I just enjoy reading it. In my opinion, I think the DMs who write that are like
00:47:19
Speaker
It shows, it tells you a lot about a DM because like, I could come up with like, I have ideas for whole giant campaigns with like, I want this to happen. And then they go here and they go there. But then it's like, if your players want something different, especially because of their backstory, like I want my players to have that more than I want to have it. Like I, I, I think it was a tweet I posted a while ago, but it was like being a DM is like hosting a party where like you do a lot of work.
00:47:47
Speaker
and you might plan activities, you might even spend money and food and stuff, but it's a lot of work. But if everyone's having fun, then it's all worth it. And even if you've planned all these activities and then everyone ends up just playing Xbox all night, but everyone had a blast, don't. I'm glad the Xbox was there for that. And it's like, if you feel like you're not, because a lot of people would be like, well, it's about the DMs fund too. And I was like, if you've established a campaign
00:48:15
Speaker
that everyone at the table found something they had fun, and you didn't have fun doing that? I don't think DMing's for you, you know? 100%.
00:48:27
Speaker
I fully agree with you. If you're watching people have funny things you've created, that's enough for me. I'm enjoying that anyway. It's great watching you guys just run around and dig about in this funny little world I've built. And you'll always have players who enjoy that more when they helped put, like if you've developed a whole town based on someone's backstory, they're gonna love that town no matter what you did with it because they kind of made it, you know? And that's how it's collaborative, collaborative storytelling.
00:48:56
Speaker
Exactly. 100%. I mean, you could even use your players from one campaign after that's finished to continue the world on and they become like legends or whatever for the law. Like, yeah, exactly. That's fine. Unless you kill them in that campaign and they don't come back to the Alex.
00:49:13
Speaker
That was unintentional. Well, I kind of suspected it to happen. It was a one shot. It's fine. Your legend's in the law. Well, I give you the law. You'll see Forrest Land's name. It's OK. It's an ex-parade. And that metric is inspired by a statue dedicated to your sacrifice. Fantastic. I mean, I've even had, in the one shot we ran for some world building for the world I'm doing.
00:49:43
Speaker
In my world, there's only 26 goblins. They're one family. So people don't fight goblins. Goblins are nice in my world. They're nice people and they're respected. But as far as their names go, it's like Boblin and then just the alphabet. That's why there's 26 in front. But we had one of the players in the one shot was like, can I play a goblin? I was like, yeah, you can play a goblin.
00:50:08
Speaker
Give me a letter, decide what his job is. And that goblin's going to be an NPC later on in the story. But you can play him now however you want him to be. Yeah. I think having players like help with the world building is genuinely the... 100%, yeah. I love that. So good.
00:50:32
Speaker
Yeah, and they're all going to have jobs related to what letter in the alphabet is. So, moblin, merchant goblin. This specific player played loblin because they lob a lot of cannons. It's like a fantasy men in black organization.
00:50:51
Speaker
Yeah, genuinely. It pretty much is at this point. I mean, I've told them about Boblin in this world because Boblin the Goblin is like the basic NPC meme. Boblin. Boblin in this world is straight up just a demigod who you can summon by sacrificing a gold coin to buy things off of. That's just the existence of Boblin, yeah.
00:51:15
Speaker
Right, I think that will lead us straight into our next segment. Horror stories. This one seems interesting. It seems relatively interesting. It's from a player's point of view, this one. Recently we've got some DM ones, but this one is player's point of view.
00:51:37
Speaker
The title is, I somehow became an NPC in a two-person campaign. Yeah. Interesting. So me, Barbarian, and my friend, Bard Slinger, have never played D&D before. But our other friend, the DM, had on several occasions. So we decided to start a campaign.
00:52:02
Speaker
Session 1 occurred, and it was great. We opened the campaign with my character participating in a drinking contest, while Bartlinger went around pickpocketing off of all the drunk people. All was going well, the dice were on my side, I was winning the drinking contest, Bartlinger was getting so much money, and then another player, they were only here for session 1 before scheduling, made them drop out.
00:52:26
Speaker
Open the barrel outside the tavern setting off a chain of explosions that was catalyst to a goblin raid cool session one sounds good
00:52:33
Speaker
We spent the rest of the session switching between fighting off goblins and running back to the temple to get supplies. All in all, it was really fun. And then the after party happened. During the after party, Barcelona's character, I think that means bar slingers, acted like a stereotypical bard. No problem, it was funny at the time. But in doing so, we met an NPC named Miles. Miles was your run of the mill, innocent, naive cleric who didn't even know what sex was.
00:53:02
Speaker
Bartling interacts with him once and is immediately like he's too pure to be around me and starts acting awkward. It's funny at first, but for some reason our DM latches onto this and is immediately set on finding more and more ways to get them stuck together. Because now it's subtly, not so subtly, his OTP.
00:53:23
Speaker
For the next six sessions, all social interactions and role play involves Miles in some capacity, even getting to a point where the story wouldn't progress unless he was there. It didn't affect Buzz Slinger all that much because any chance that her character and Miles could interact was immediately going to happen.
00:53:41
Speaker
I, on the other hand, somehow got sidelined everywhere except combat. If we're in town and I want to participate in a drinking contest again, now as Jioz and Miles is in there with me, also somehow with advantage since he had poison immunity.
00:53:54
Speaker
If I wanted to try and help an NPC, I got exactly one check to try before Miles came over and did it for me. And if I decided to branch off and do my own thing, like within the same building, I didn't split a party. I got to interact with an NPC for maybe two sentences before you'd get cut back to Bartlinger and Miles doing whatever they were doing. I did have almost no impact to the point where the DM actually forgot NPCs I contacted with or were important to my backstory.
00:54:22
Speaker
Whereas he let us know he already had Bartlinger's whole story quest ready as soon as we finished our current mission. And yes, Miles was vital to it. This eventually fell through mostly because of scheduling. But by the last session, I didn't even attempt to interact with anything outside of combat. And the story and everything involved remains entirely the same. By the end, I was only relevant during combat since they needed me to stay alive and to carry things since I had the highest strength.
00:54:51
Speaker
TLDR DM basically turns campaign into bard slingers dating game and I sit on the sidelines being combat packed mule Yeah That's the that's the horror story. Um, I feel very bad for this player Yeah, one quick question. Yeah anywhere in that did they mention to the DM that they felt sidelined? No Yeah, and that is that is the top comment is um, I
00:55:20
Speaker
Yeah, sorry that happened to you, but you've got to coordinate with the DM communication, which is a general rule with the horror stories here. There's a lack of communication always with the horror story because communication does solve things. However, DM should have known better. For a first-time player as well to go through something like that,
00:55:43
Speaker
Easily, they could put off playing D&D easily. They could just be like, if D&D is going to be like this, I don't understand. Yeah. There's a couple of things there, I think. Like, so like, I think we hear a lot about characters having main character like syndrome. And I think a lot of times DMs can accidentally facilitate that. And like even in newer DMs, like whenever you're playing.
00:56:08
Speaker
especially newer DMs with a bunch of people and you're really worried about like anyone participating. And there's one player who's like always engaging, like always like talking to the NPC, always doing this and that. You can accidentally start making a story about them because they're the one kind of engaging. This doesn't sound too much like that because it sounds like, like they said, like their whole story was planned out and they were just kind of there.
00:56:33
Speaker
Um, I do think again, like talking is, people don't want to have that awkward conversation, but like having one really awkward conversation to save you like 15 awkward sessions, I think is a good trade-off. Yeah. Um, I think it also comes down to just being, this is, I mean, they said DM and never DM before. So it definitely comes down to just, just like you said, leaning on a player that's engaging.
00:57:03
Speaker
And and I have a general rule on romance is like, I don't touch that at all unless my players engage it. You know, like if they engage it with another player, I will separately make sure both players are cool with it. And if they engage it with an NPC, I'll play along. But like I've only seen I've seen so many times I've been a part of campaign. That's why I've never played Strahd. Like I was a part of a struggle. I have my own horror story with Strahd and like
00:57:33
Speaker
I was a young elf. They tried to get me involved with like a mayor's wife. It was a whole thing. And I was like, that's that's not that that wasn't even my character's vibe. Like so, you know, whenever a DM initiates, like if it's like a like a drunk bard maid who's flirting with someone, that's fine as like a quick little encounter as long as it doesn't go too far. But like any kind of like romantic physically or emotionally like with an NPC or are trying to force something between players.
00:58:02
Speaker
It can, in my opinion, it's gone wrong more than it's gone, right? Especially if it's facilitated by someone who, you know, isn't involved in it. Yeah, we have the exact same rule, but it's just, if it happens, it happens. No one's going to push it because this is a funny little fantasy world. Nobody wants to spend time doing that unless you want to. I have to say, I think the times I've seen it the most have been in like, whenever I've been a part of a drop-in game, like,
00:58:31
Speaker
I've only done like, you know, come sit at the table at your comic shop to do this game. And then there's always some weird sexual thing. And I'm like, I'm good. Thank you. I'll never come here again. I'm scarred for life. Thank you very much. So that's that's that's quite common. You see, I think you see quite a lot, especially in the online things. I mean, I sent you a
00:58:58
Speaker
screenshot the other day and put it in. Was it yesterday? Yesterday I think. Someone had posted, looking to start a fun D&D server.
00:59:09
Speaker
And then they also added at the end for part with kinky conversations. I was like, how does that work? At what point? It was in the D&D Facebook group chat for D&D UK Dungeons. It's a big group chat. There's a lot of people and they weren't anyone interested in D&D fantasy chat for where kink friendly, 18 plus,
00:59:35
Speaker
for geeks and nerds who like romance and shit. I was just like, no, don't put that in this chat. I'm sure there's another chat out there. It's just one of those things that if it has to be said or mentioned, you're playing for the wrong reasons, I think.
00:59:51
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. 100%. Yeah. 100%. Yeah. And I was just, uh, the only time I've seen it work, like a romance thing is when two players are like, Hey, we're going to build characters. They're going to fall in love. We will discover how that happens along the way. You know, but it's like D I think the DM should stay out of it, you know? Yeah.
01:00:17
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I think it's become a lot more popular. Sorry. Go on. Oh, I was just I was just a grave. Yeah a Lot more popular seeing the sort of actual place doing it put a critical role but yet they are actors this is that's literally their job is to is to is to formulate some others and stay within boundaries and it's all
01:00:39
Speaker
I think it's very difficult to do it because you can get out of hand real quick and especially if people aren't used to that and then you can get entangled with real world things and just avoid it. And that's the thing too. Like one, like it works if like you've been best friends for seven years and you're playing D&D together. If you're going in a drop-in game,
01:01:03
Speaker
don't start a relationship with anyone. You don't know anyone. That's weird. I don't care if it's what you would do. That's weird. Yeah.
01:01:16
Speaker
Yeah, and by the looks of the comments, luckily, the player seems to have started DMing their own campaign. So it's kind of a positive end to that. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, that's pretty good. A lot of people suggested killing Miles. Yeah, I would try to kill Miles. That's a great way if you don't want to engage in that awkward conversation.
01:01:43
Speaker
Just kill the NPC and they'll kick you out and you're like great. Sorry. Oops, whatever. Yeah, that's my way of doing it. Yeah, just straight up kill off Miles. Yeah. Cool. Is there any like other things you tend to stay clear of in D&D that you don't want to bring to the campaign? Evil characters. Like again, I play with a lot of
01:02:10
Speaker
first time players mixed in with some experienced players and weirdly enough I wonder if you guys have the same feelings because it seems like you guys play with new people regularly. The person who has the least D&D experience wants to play an evil character.
01:02:26
Speaker
Second or first character in I wanted. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. You don't know what that is. Yes. And like you're you hopefully you either do or don't understand that the people you're going to interact with are not NPCs. And like there's going to be some weird feelings there. Any DM or player. I highly recommend the book called our our T.T. RPG therapy.
01:02:50
Speaker
Um, my wife is a therapist, so I'm very interested in kind of like, uh, how TTRPGs can influence like your mental health and stuff. And, uh, this book describes it really well and how like some people either do or don't have the ability to separate their feelings from their characters. And if they don't, they have to understand it's a skill that you develop. Um, you know, like you hear about like, even in like games like World of Warcraft, when like things happen in games, like people can't separate.
01:03:21
Speaker
uh, like they're like, you're my friend. We're not having a conversation. I just, you know, I want to steal your stuff because you know, my character has a problem, whatever. Like nine times out of 10 people can't separate that. And I think too many people will lean on the fact that like, Oh, well you should be able to separate that. And it's like, that is, that is a skill that you develop. It's a skill that actors have to spend a lot of time developing. I've, I've been a professional performer for a little over a decade now.
01:03:49
Speaker
And it's just like, whenever you are in a speaking role with someone and it has any kind of like serious dramatic in it, like conversations have to happen and all those, it's not just someone you can play a game and be good at. And like, whether you want to have those experiences or not, like you have to navigate that the right way. And whether someone should or shouldn't feel this, because it happened in character, it didn't happen in character, like you can't decide if
01:04:16
Speaker
an action you or your character did upset someone. Like you can't decide that they should or shouldn't be upset by that. And if you know that's going to lead to people being upset, like it's going to be a better experience if you just don't do that. You can make another character who doesn't want to do these horrible things to your party and still have fun with the game. Yeah, I think that's it's definitely a new player thing of because once you
01:04:44
Speaker
once you start playing the game and you realize, you'll find your favorite NPC and you'll find your favorite town and you'll be like, oh, well, I don't want to be an evil person in this because they're so friendly. You have a little gnome dude and he's like going about his day. And you're like, oh, well. There's two different people in this world. And it's like, there's all those games that like, we're like, hey, here's a choice you get to make. Be Satan or Mother Teresa. And like, whenever you've accidentally clicked like the really evil one, you're like, oh no, reload my safe.
01:05:14
Speaker
And then there's the people who only pick that option. Those are the two different people in this world. And I think we're in such a weird time where D&D came before mainstream video games. But there are more people who have played mainstream video games than D&D. And so they are trained with video game mentality. And they don't understand how different it is when you're dealing with other people. And half of the game can be emotions.
01:05:41
Speaker
and people who don't know how to regulate their own emotions. Yeah. Yeah, I think I think, yeah, I think the best way for someone to to realize the best like slap in the face is if you play with a player that is really experienced and then you've made your like character and you're about to be really serious and evil. And then the second you speak to that player and they really experience you like, oh,
01:06:08
Speaker
okay is this not serious and we're not meant to be evil it's like no you can do what you want um don't have to make an evil character it's definitely you have to find a balance of having just like someone who's experienced there with you um and then you play it up because then it's like they realize that there's not everything not everything has to be like oh a serious or evil or or dark it's it's it's a role-playing game and again
01:06:34
Speaker
those feelings are hard to navigate and hard to realize your experience. I'm like, I don't know if you ever had like I've I've had like some player conflict, but it's in character. So I'm like, hey, I just want to pause. Are you OK? Are you guys all right? And they'll look at me. They're like, yeah, we're fine. We're in character. I'm like, OK, well, you know, that's a lot of energy coming from your find. So like, let's just like take a beat and like look at what's happening and and why those things need to happen.
01:07:00
Speaker
I think the best way to play an evil character, and this came directly from an interview with Lou Wilson from D20, and it was like, if you want to play an evil character, it is your responsibility as the player to come up with a reason why you don't want to be evil towards your party. In my opinion, I think there's way too much pressure on the DM. You're like, hey, here's five different people with five different varieties of fun, and you have to facilitate all of them, even if they conflict.
01:07:29
Speaker
It's everyone's responsibility at the table to make sure everybody is comfortable. And, uh, if you think you're above that, or it's not your job, then it's like, you want to play for the wrong reasons and you're not there for everyone else's fun as well. Then why are you playing a multiplayer game? I think that's why the way I've seen a lot of people online and I've been added like this is like a message to DM. I want to play in your game and I immediately get added to the chat.
01:07:58
Speaker
I was like, I don't like that. I think the way that I do things is I'll talk to a five, six from people. I'll post all the screenshots, every conversation in the build chamber. Like guys, who do you guys like the look of? Any message even you weird, like who vibes with you the most based on these messages. And then we decided like that, um, cause I've got to play with them, but you've also got to play with them. It's more.
01:08:22
Speaker
You have, yeah, they have to play with them. It's not just me dealing with them. You have to interact with them like 24 seven, or I am just sort of like 100%. I actually have a question for you because like, I don't really play with people I don't personally know. And it seems like you like jump on forums and you search for people on the internet. Like what is your process of like someone you don't know personally, but you want to invite them, especially inviting them to a group of like your personal friends. Like what is that process like for you to invite someone to your like personal game?
01:08:55
Speaker
It's very, so I think the original group was, I'd known Rosie like 10 years, online friends for years, so I know she's gonna be fine, no problems. And then Emma was someone I didn't know. So I started off with those things we've got from there. And it was always kind of posted descriptions of the campaign online, asked a person, give me a brief like rundown of what you're like, what you do, that kind of thing.
01:09:22
Speaker
Generally, sometimes include ages, sometimes don't, because over 18, because that's just the comfortability of the group, that's what everyone's vibed with. Don't really care if they're like 40, 50, whatever, as long as you're going to be a chill play, because we have some LGBTQ and stuff like that. If you're going to be down with that, that's fine. Everyone is with respect at the table. If you're not going to do that, you're gone immediately. And then it's just based on vibe of the character,
01:09:49
Speaker
And like, you can kind of work out based on the description of their character, what they're going to be like as a player. And then this is generally trial by error. We've had people join and then we've gone, you're not really fitting. And then it's the awkward conversation of, hi, sorry. Like people have come to me with complaints and it's kind of like, I've got to deal with it now. And, um, you know, I just recently started playing with like, it is not even that extended. It was like, I'm playing with these three players. They want their roommate to join.
01:10:20
Speaker
And I'm still even defensive about that. Like I trust this girl's, whose roommate she's with. And like, we, I made them go out. We went out to an escape room and we had ice cream afterwards. We hung out, we talked and stuff. And I was like, cool, we can try. You know, like I'm very defensive over like my players. Cause you know, there's a lot of trust there, you know? So like, I think, you know, it is, it is always like, you know,
01:10:47
Speaker
Protective dad moment of like hey, what kind of energy you're gonna bring into this game that we we all enjoy together, you know, I Feel the same and I hate I hate using it because it's like it feels Because our group is predominantly female and I do feel protected over the place I'm like it feels bad because it's that kind of vibe and I'm like, but it's not it's like I
01:11:12
Speaker
It's it is difficult to emphasize how protective you feel of the party. It's that it's the vibe and how comfortable and how fun every session is. Like is introducing this new person going to do something like that? Again, like kudos to you. Like, I don't think I've ever even done the whole like, Hey, can my roommate join our current campaign? Like when they were like, Hey, can our roommate join? I was like, cool. We're starting over. Like we're making new characters.
01:11:41
Speaker
We were kind of wrapping up at a short adventure anyways. But I was like, I don't want, because I also don't want the person coming in to feel alienated. But again, I've met this person. I spent time with him a little bit. And I can't imagine bringing strangers on the internet to a predominantly female group. I just feel like there's so many things that could go wrong. And it seems like it has from time to time. Yeah.
01:12:10
Speaker
It has a few times. It happens and it's just got to move on. Alex, you do a lot, don't you? On the player side, I've joined a lot of servers and campaigns online. I've never played a person, never, not once. I got into D&D online.
01:12:33
Speaker
I got into, so it was a Facebook group. I asked my uncle because he played D&D and he knew about it. I was like, cool, how do I get into it? And he said, there's a lot of online stuff. Check out this group chat, this Facebook group chat. And it was D&D UK. And I was looking for the first time I saw a post, the first post I went to, because I didn't know anything about anything. So I was like, cool.
01:12:56
Speaker
first post I messaged, and they're like, yeah, come to the server. It was a whole Discord server full of different, it wasn't just for one campaign, it was for multiple. It was just like a basically just like, yeah, you can pick and choose your campaign and message them.
01:13:11
Speaker
Luckily, I lucked out. My first campaign, I got along with the DM very well, and he got along with me, and he was like, yeah, I'm going to introduce you to the other players. Cool. And it was great. But there have been messages in that server for campaigns. When I've looked at them, I've just gone, I'm not going to like this.
01:13:30
Speaker
And then because I'm active in that server, I will get a message from the DM and it will be like, oh, you're active. Would you mind being in this campaign? And I've just had to reject them. I've had to be like, no, I know I'm active in the server, but I can't. I don't think I would enjoy your campaign. And then there's been being a player when other strangers on the Internet joined the campaign.
01:13:57
Speaker
Because I know, and this was especially for me, I was really nervous joining.
01:14:03
Speaker
I was scared. I was like, okay, this could go horribly. I was really nervous. Luckily, the other player who was in the campaign was really nice and helped me in. So I like to make sure that I don't become like, when someone else, someone new joins, that I'm nice to them and that I don't just like make things sucky. No, I just, I'm a nice person. I interact with their character and I make sure they feel comfortable.
01:14:30
Speaker
because if someone who's joined doesn't feel comfortable they're not going to be a good like person to have around as well because they're going to be uncomfortable. It's going to suck for them and then it will eventually suck for us. So yeah there's definitely a lot of accommodating to do as a player as well. That's a huge point I think. I think it's really important like if you're going to run a game that has like a rotating seat or whatever like
01:14:53
Speaker
the DM has to do so much. So like, if you have that one character who's like, I'm comfortable with this game comfortable with these people, I want to make you feel comfortable here. That that helps not just the person coming in, but that helps the DM and like, you know, you also like don't want that new person coming in and like they're only looking to the DM of like, if is what I'm doing? Okay, like having the players like, you know, someone there to really navigate your your
01:15:18
Speaker
your character's involvement into the party and getting comfortable with everyone both in character and out of character is huge. So I think that's key. That makes a lot of sense.
Introducing New Players
01:15:27
Speaker
That's probably why you guys have had success with this. You have that player like, hey, you're with me, sit next to me. This is how we do things here. That's huge.
01:15:38
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. My tactic is start with comedy or like the first thing playing, they play like they introduce their player. Start with comedy. Do something silly. They can calm down a bit and then you can do whatever you guys want. But yeah, just start with giving that player like a moment, you know, like, you know, having that one person who's like, hey, this is the new person. They're a rogue. Maybe they should look at the trap, you know, whatever. I think that's that's pretty big. Coming from another player, not just the damn. Yeah. Yeah.
01:16:10
Speaker
Something I've also saw in what I tried to join is they invited me to join and it was in the middle of the campaign because I think there were a group of new players and they wanted a more experienced player to help and guide through. There were a new DM as well, running lost minds. I'd run two or three times so I kind of knew my way through.
01:16:28
Speaker
And I get that you're sometimes at a point where you can't introduce a new player immediately, but I got there for two and a half hours just waiting to be introduced. And I was kind of like, that's, if you're doing this to a new player, I would have left. Like that's horrible. So I try and introduce players as soon as possible, even if it's slightly clunky, you can do it in a funny way that makes it a moment to make it interesting, to make it funny for that player that's getting introduced. I mean, I think I did someone on Wednesday, on my Wednesday campaign,
01:16:56
Speaker
they literally a portal opened above them, the guild have sent them a new like, they'd lost a player, the guild is something like a replacement, they drop from the sky, boom, bye, see you later. Yeah, you know, I think yeah, that I think that dives into like the whole like, how this always sounds ridiculous to say, but how realistic should your game
Balancing Realism and Fun
01:17:20
Speaker
be? Like, and, and
01:17:23
Speaker
Bending that realism for the sake of convenience and like fun There's a weird balance that has to happen like right you can't just do anything all the time it needs to almost feel realistic at least within the realm you're playing in but like I talk about it a lot with survival games of like a Survival game that's too realistic isn't fun because surviving in the woods by yourself isn't fun like
01:17:52
Speaker
So like mechanically it has to make sense. And like even as a new DM, he could have put it on you being a more experienced player of like, Hey, how do you show up in this room right now after they just finished this encounter or whatever, you know, like leaning on your player's creativity for that and making a moment out of it. It doesn't have to be a huge thing, especially when the people, the real life people know this is a brand new person to work table. We can really just brush over the fact of how they got here, you know, like.
01:18:21
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's, I've definitely said it before, but one thing I do try and, I guess, people talk about the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,
Emotional Engagement and Humor
01:18:47
Speaker
I think as like 100% and I think it has like Brennan Lee Mulligan's gotten more popular and like how like a critical role I think really introduced to the world like how emotionally tied like everyone can be to a situation and Brennan Lee Mulligan was like yeah totally but also we can have fart jokes and it's just as cool that's what D&D ends up being anyways and it's like yeah that's part of it now you know like it's part of it and that
01:19:17
Speaker
brings people to be in a comfortable space that maybe eventually get to that really deep connection with your characters and each other. But like, man, it I think it is him and Abria, honestly, like, I think really was like, oh, you can be an amazing DM. You don't have to be an amazing voice actor and storyteller like
01:19:38
Speaker
you can make it fun with your skill sets. And it just kind of made DMing approachable. And I think both D20 and Critical Role has done a good job about being like, hey, look, other people can DM, anyone can do it. Look, you know, and I think that's huge. And people need to understand and break that wall of people starting to DM.
Impact of Professional DMs
01:20:01
Speaker
Yeah. And it's, I think I call it mag pieing because it's, it's just taking the fun bits that other DMS do. And I, I hate the term, the, the Matt Mercer effect because it's, it's making everyone a better DM because it would be Bria. One of the things you always says is how's your character feeling in this moment? And that's something I've taken and I use a lot because it, it does, I guess, make you guys think and it makes you vocalize what you guys are doing in that moment. And I think Alex, you're a test. I use it quite a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Many, many times. Yeah. It's so.
01:20:31
Speaker
powerful and I think it's important to ask because Again, I think I'm quoting one of my own videos like and again being a husband to a therapist like people don't think of it enough Even if there's something there Because and I know people don't think of it enough because people don't ask themselves that enough like how are you doing? You know, like how am I doing right now? Like no one asked themselves that so I know you're not asking yourself about your character, you know and like I
01:20:58
Speaker
just taking a moment be like, Oh, wow, I guess right now he would feel this and that because of the situation and that can evolve into a whole new arc and really like, build that connection between that player and that character just by asking him like, Hey, how you doing, you know, it's it's so powerful and so simple and you know, people gloss over it a lot.
01:21:22
Speaker
There are so many things we can take from these professionals. It's their job. They're popular for a reason. You can take things from them without making it
Variety in Playstyles
01:21:33
Speaker
a bad thing. Yeah, 100%. And I think it's just like, again, D&D is such like, you can play in so many different ways. And I think internally, that makes new people uncomfortable. There's too many options. So then I think that's why people cling on to like, oh, this is how Matt Mercer plays. This is the best way to play it.
01:21:51
Speaker
And then Brennan comes along and plays it a little differently. And Abrilla comes along and plays it a little differently. And they're like, oh, OK, we can play it in all these different ways. Like, I think one thing I got from D20 in general is like sharing the mechanics of the fight with your players. Especially when you're like coming up with the new stuff all the time, like the box of doom is genius. Because it's like if I tell you to like roll an arcana check right now to see if you can manipulate this thing, and you're like, OK, I got a dirty 20.
01:22:21
Speaker
I, that probably does it. And you're like, yeah, that does it. But like, you have no way to know what I said that DC to, you know, like if I was like, Oh, it's a 22, but then maybe I want it to be a 20, it kind of takes credibility away
Skill Checks and Player Accountability
01:22:34
Speaker
from the DM. But then if the DM's like, listen, this is a, this is DC 25. I'm going to tell you that right now. Decide what you're going to do. And then it holds you, the DM accountable, and then internally makes you better at coming up with a pass or fail.
01:22:51
Speaker
think too many DMs are like, here's skill check. Yeah, you're gonna pass it because I don't know what to do if you fail it. So like, holding yourself accountable by telling them the DC first, I think is a huge way to get yourself as a DM better at deciding what the passing fail state is going to be on any skill check.
01:23:13
Speaker
Yeah, that's yeah, that's definitely something fun that I definitely start doing more than a couple of times, but it's definitely start doing more of and there was that That one video that Matt did I think it was when he was DMing for d20. He said during one of the adventuring academies it was Roll a deception a persuasion check. Oh, yeah, tell me which and I was like, huh?
01:23:38
Speaker
I have to do that. Yeah, that is genius. Yeah, yeah, 100%. I still need immediately. And that is the best thing about playing D&D. And like, it's also like, I'm a performer, Universal Studios Orlando, and I'm also a trainer. So like, when I train in new people to perform, I'm like, here's what I do. Here's what there's a lot of flexibility in our performance. So I'll be like, hey, do this, do that. And I was like,
01:24:05
Speaker
That was cool. Keep doing that. And also I'm going to do that now. Thank you. You know, and I think that is also the benefit of encouraging other people to
DMing to Learn and Improve
01:24:14
Speaker
DM. Like, you know, if if your player starts DMing and you're like, here's what I normally do and they do something completely different, you're like, oh, shit, why didn't you think of that? You know, like it just makes everyone better. And it's so good. And it just feels good because it makes you feel like you're becoming better. Abrilla did something in the recent thing and
01:24:35
Speaker
It's, it's so honest. Like there's a, there's, I think a Brio is one of my favorite dance because of her brutal honesty. She's like, here, roll this check. Let me be clear. If you fail this, this will happen. And then it just like adds those stakes. It makes player remember their abilities. Oh yeah. I have bless. Oh yeah. I have inspiration and all those things players tend to forget. Like when you let them know ahead of time, this is going to be serious. What do you do?
01:25:05
Speaker
And then it makes your players become more creative. And then you can reward that creativity because they kind of have an idea what the stakes are. And it's this type of thing that seems so obvious. And then it's like, oh, why don't I do that? It's great.
01:25:23
Speaker
So that abrear is definitely one of my favorite DMs but I've definitely got a bone to pit with her currently because I'm also a behavior, animal behavior researcher and I'm currently working on otters, so muslids, and the one animal campaign you do is the Watership Down season with stoats and I'm like no! That's gotta be... I don't dare you! This is my thing and you're...
01:25:47
Speaker
I can only imagine. It's painful. I spend all day looking at otter videos and then... Yeah, you just gotta lean in, you're like, yeah, they're doing this because magic... Magic's involved so that's why it's different than reality. Add it to my ethogram, magic. Magic or science, you know, whatever it is.
Shoutouts and Closing Remarks
01:26:11
Speaker
Yeah.
01:26:12
Speaker
Thank you very much for coming on. It's genuinely been amazing talking to you. I think I've learned a lot. Alex, I hope you've got some. There are things I'm stealing. There are things I'm stealing. Thanks for having me. And I'm always down to chat D&D for sure. So one final question. Do you have any sort of smaller creators? I know you mentioned your friends podcast that you want to shout out. Yeah, absolutely.
01:26:39
Speaker
Matt Forrest runs the Fandom Encounters show. It's on Twitch, I believe, every other Thursday. And then all those episodes also become podcasts on whatever you watch podcasts on. And in general, you know, I'm on YouTube and TikTok as an encountersmith. And keep finding new people to engage with, you know. And you can ask me anything. You guys are just like, hey, you want to talk? And I was like,
01:27:08
Speaker
don't absolutely sometimes it just takes asking. Yeah. Yeah. I made it like. Yeah. Yeah.
01:27:16
Speaker
Yeah, so we'll be back next week with another creator, which we're very excited about. So yeah, you can watch us on, well, we're on TikTok now as we're trying. We've had a little competition. We're trying. Which you'll have seen. We'll get the most views. Yeah, we're on Spotify. So give us that five star rating on there. It genuinely helps more than you guys think. So thank you very much for watching and we'll see you guys next week. Yeah, bye.