One of these days that DM from the first story will TPK the whole party in a peaceful tavern night after killing a super tough homebrew monster because they didn't specify that their character would like to breathe lmao
God, the story with Mr. Asshole. "Helping them can't hurt you." I had to block my best friend today, because he won't get therapy and I can't help him the way he needs. He won't even try to get on a waiting list. He thinks I "abandoned him". But his behavior was destroying me, and I was letting it because I adored him. I love him a lot. It isn't love to let someone hurt you. He was ripping me to shreds because he rips himself to shreds. I hope he stops ripping himself up one day.
You did the right thing. I used to be that type of friend and partner till they finally had enough. It was a proper wake up call when they left. I’ve changed to be a much healthier and kinder person in those 3 years since. He’s gotta want the change, Yknow? I hope he finds it, and I know it hurts, but you did the right thing. He can’t be a good friend to you if he can’t even love himself.
Damn sounds rough, I'm going to the same kind of situation where I don't know anymore if trying to help people online or give them attention is the right call. How are you feeling now?
About the gf DM, I’m honestly concerned the bf is gonna turn out to be abusive. Victims tend to become victims again. It’s a horrible cycle but it’s true. It sounds like he’s, intentionally or not, ruining her games and driving friends away. That’s isolationism and it’s always the first step
@@gr33nriver77 except they're not jumping to conclusions, they're saying this is what it sounds like. They're not stating it as a fact, but based on what is being presented this is what it sounds like to them. Stating an opinion and jumping to conclusions are two different things.
First story; this is weird because the DM is just going to get an extremely detailed description of every action from every player and the story will slow to a crawl. First player: "I breathe in and out as I walk down the hall. I also make sure the step with my left foot and right foot in an alternating fashion." Second Player: " I make sure to use my bonus action to blink. I don't want to get dry eyes because I forgot to declare my blinking." and so on.
Yeah, the only game I ever ragequit had a GM like this. Even after I explained to him why I was leaving, with the other players backing me up on my claims, he acted so dismissive about it that it caused one other player to bail as well. I had no clue if the other players would have followed or if GM got his act together because that disastrous session was right before quarantine started.
fr I don't play the game but if somebody tried to pull that shit on me I'd be throwing hands... or the closest available object. Admittedly, I am also oversensitive and very short-tempered, so it's little surprise that something like this would frustrate me to levels of near-homicide.
I'd try the "sarcastic as fuck extremely detailed descriptions of actions" for a bit until either the DM got the hint and stopped being a douche or I got sick of it and just outright quit the game - while calling the DM a few select names and casting aspersions on their parentage and sexual habits.
I've seen players that have been legitimately scarred by this kind of malicious GMing, so much so that they treat describing their actions to the GM like they're making wishes on a cursed monkey's paw. It pisses me off so much that I've made averting it part of my unofficial GM Code of Conduct, wherein I promise players to interpret their action descriptions in good faith and never to punish them for omitting something that would be covered under the bounds of common sense.
Why would they? Primarily creatures hunt in packs either for their own safety or to make catching and killing their prey far easier. Rust monsters eat metal ;D Honestly this is no doubt just the DM intentionally screwing over the players for a laugh x_x
@@PaladinGear15 exactly my thoughts. Only encounter with multi Rust Monsters that makes sense, is if they're trapped in a location without any/sufficient metal to fill their diet. So a party in plate mail is gonna be fought over like a dead elephant by starving lions and hyenas. So we'd be talking like demiplane, or a tomb with some lost technology stonework that monsters couldn't burrow through.
You want an anomaly? My very first DnD campaign, i rolled six 18s. In front of the DM. He saw me roll them, and no, the dice were not loaded as other players had used the same dice.
DM: "describes rust monster as a cockorach" Me: "looks up art for rust monster" looks more like a mix of a shrimp and a grasshopper to me also call me petty but i'd probably throw my book at that DM's head, if he complains "well you didnt specifically say NOT to throw a book at you"
Story 3 I read this story and I definitely this douchebag is just trying to isolate DM from her friends, and maybe saw OP as either competition or someone who could pull DM away from abuser. When it comes to situations like this, where you have someone you careabout stuck in the haze of an abusive situation, your best solution is to take a step back but leave the door open… you can’t convince the victim to leave, they have to choose to leave-but when they DO finally leave, you can be there to help them get out. And don’t threaten the abuser either. They will take it out on the victim-or the victim will pin you with any assault charges. Let us hope Dm can get out of this.
"That felt good." As for story 3, my first reaction before the update was something along the lines of "wow, this guy sounds insecure. Wonder if he's worried OP is gonna steal his girlfriend?" And yeah, after the update, I guess I was right despite being jokey about it. It's too bad the "seduce the witch" ploy ended up being what made Mr. Asshole blow up, that sounded like some hilarious hijinks. I hope OP and Rogue get to play their Tulio and Miguel inspired characters someday.
As someone who has a weird amount of luck just by default, I make a very strong effort to make sure people physically SEE me roll physical dice. I have had the ridiculous luck to manage multiple 18s on one or two character sheets without trying, and even I glared at my dice wondering what sorcery was giving me such good results. Again, my weird power of being lucky has made me refuse to use digital dice solely because I feel like I would be accused of cheating if people didn’t physically watch it happen.
I once did a variant of the "it was a pull door" BS that i felt was neat. was a facility filled with the most useless magic items possible, and the bottom floor had 2 magic items they used in tandem to lock the vault. First was a door which if you pull it, its a push door, but if you push it its a pull door. The other one was a ring that let you walk through walls, but only walls within 5 feet of an unlocked door. and while the door was magically BS, it was unlocked.
Story about the abusive boyfriend: always stand up for yourself, even if it may make things awkward. It's good for a girl like that, with multiple abusive relationships apparently, to see that things can be different and that it's ok to walk away from the situation/relationship.
Often I imagine what'd happen if you turned the tables on those horror DMs. As for the smug DM in the first story, what if - when someone else runs the next game - they were the only one who got treated that way while the rest of the players were treated normally? "I activate my boots of speed!" "You didn't say you put on your boots, so they're back at the camp." You know, taste of their own medicine and all that?
Reminds me of a story where the DM was supporting a player character about to molest a female party member only for her boyfriend had his character force himself on the molester in the same way despite the DM's discomfort.
The story about the girlfriend DM: Pro tip, if you're in a group of people and there's clearly one asshole who consistently targets you, leave the group. People need to understand how to stick up for themselves and realize that the "friends" around you aren't worth sticking around with if they won't stick up for you 👍 Also I'm confused by the story because was this online or in person? Seems to go back and forth between messaging and physically doing something
Some people play a mix like that. A lot of the games I'm in are online just because it's easier then driving to people's houses. But we do try to get round a physical table now and then. Could be the same thing here.
Exactly. If you're with your friends and one person consistently acts like an asshole to you and they don't react or instead excuse them, then those aren't your friends.
It's really easy as an outside observer to say what the OP, or those around them should do and act like you'd be a total badass and completely own the Problem player, then hop on Reddit and write your own 'I swear, it totally happened and is not made up' horror story. While we're on the subject of 'what I'd totally do in that situation'. I'd laugh in the guys face and tell the DM this guy is an insecure man child and has clearly already started in on the mental abuse. Then he'd lung at me, I throw a punch, knocking him out following up with an epic one-liner 'Nat 20, bitch.' Then the female DM proceeds to give me BJ while everyone at the table cheers. Now THAT'S how you 'if I was in that situation', noobs.
@@tarotsushima3332 yeah I could never be in a game where that happens I'm way too confrontational LOL. Nor would I allow it to happen in one of my games. I wish people weren't so afraid of confrontation, it's not that bad. You're going to feel a hell of a lot better when you stand up and fight back against the insults rather than taking them
I wish gf dm was told something important: if your partner is horrible and abusive to other people but nice to you, it wont last. That mask will fall off and you'll be their next target. It is inevitable with those people. Get out while you can.
Story 1 - See, DM’s like this piss me off because they force the game into a crawl. You are basically spend your entire game time asking 100 questions absout one room and it kills the mood and is a good way to cause animosity, since they have to deal with a pedantic asshat. If you need something specific, make a dice check set to a fair DC. Otherwise, let the players just… do the thing
My husband GMed a Savage Worlds game in a setting with no dwarves. On session zero, one player said he wanted to play a dwarf. When asked if he read the world background hand out (PDF of six pages) he said "Why, no!" As if really proud of himself. Said player ended up running one of the NPCs intended as a short encounter as a long term character, not all was lost.
That first story - There are ways of making the players rather than the characters be responsible for checking specific things for traps, switches, etc, work - I get the impression a lot of games in the OSR movement are all about this style of play - but if you're doing that, the general advice I've seen when looking at it from the outside is that you have to run it that if the player's say they're e.g. investigating the picture and there's something behind the picture then if they aren't finding the thing behind it from doing that then at least getting a clue that there's something behind it. No rolls required. Either have the players responsible for checking the ceiling and don't have any roll involved, or have the characters responsible for it (subsumed into the roll). Both are valid playstyles, but mixing the two is both sending mixed expectations while also providing double jeopardy, creating an unfun experience that's going to inevitably create feel-bad moments. (The opening a door/not letting the party have closed the door when taking their short rest is just bs, though)
Yeah, listen to your players Our campaign died because of this and it was a long exhausting dead cause we loved the characters and the group and tried to hold on until we couldn't do it anymore. We spoke up multiple times, had discussion rounds to find solutions and improve communication but our DM just reverted back to old ways and told us to deal with it. We did until we reached the breaking point.
Story 1 If you have the Alert feat, you cannot be surprised. Also a short rest is, like, 30 minutes-hour. That’s basically like kicking back and watching an episode of a standard TV show or a couple episodes of a 30 minute show. No fucking way would folks only be asleep for one hour
Well for the first story he had the Observant feat which only adds a +5 to passive perception and passive investigation it also lets you read lips. Nothing about Surprise immunity. But with that high perception should have still worked.
@@diorkster i mean ifd i heard/ read that correctly the party was in a small-ish room that they thought they sealed the door of even if there was a "magically appearing" tear in a wall, unless the entire party is somehow facing the opposite wall, at least one of you would have line of sight with the tear and thus any enemy coming through it though im guessing the dm's "you fell asleep the second i decided you did" excuse exactly for that reason
All these people who quit games and block players because they become somewhat upset. It's tragic as hell, as well as pathetic. Nobody tries to fix what's broken, maintain relationships, and work problems out.
The door being a pull I had a DM pull that crap with a locked door with the unlock on our side. And had our rogue try to Theives tool to unlock and said it doesn’t unlock just to explain later after being arrested the lock was on her side like a normal house hold door… like we are not dumb if we see the lock we will unlock it
I can kind of relate to the intro one. I’m running a low fantasy campaign where magic and magic items are exceedingly rare and it can be tricky with players who are used to the high fantasy expectations of standard 5e.
Intro Trying to cram your favorite stuff into established worlds is often a “That Guy” move. They either want to power game or they want to play out their fetish.
I feel bad for that DM and telling but what’s the guys done so far . I hope the relationship does not last for her sake considering she’s admitted to having bad taste in bfs or friends . Plus u can really tell the OP wants to be there for them but he knows her type is not one to wise up immediately so god speed for them
#2 story: This is why I prefer to play in games with a point-buy system. The Game Master sets the level of points per the rule book, and you use the guide from that book to set your stats. Getting one or two well-above stats will be offset by having at least one dump stat. Besides, you could be that one player who rolled poorly on all of their stats.
Final Story The porblems with a party “face” is either putting the pressure in someone to speak because their charisma is high-or having someone act as the leader just because they have high charisma. I feel like a real “face” in DND will have the entire party’s best in mind and often ask on their input before rolling that charisma save. Also steamroiling sucks. It such irl when the police do this to the wrong suspect and let the chaos go for longer, and it sucks in dnd too.
The power gamer story is one of the reasons in my homemade TTRPG rules I almost always have it so stat allocation is “assign these values” instead of rolling.
I never understood power playing. I mean, sure, I want stats that work and don’t make me feel useless to the party, but that’s just it, I don’t want to feel useless FOR THE PARTY. But that also means I want to keep my stats in line roughly with their own too. It’s nice to get good stats but I have been known to reroll stats for lower ones if the party is looking like we are out of alignment. I’m also super careful about showing my dm any and all of my rolls. Even if I can’t get it so they can easily show them in whatever tools we are using (and I play enough games that I have had to learn a variety of them) I always announce my rolls and calculate them aloud (unless dm wants me to keep a roll private but I always screenshot or privately message the roll to them with the math written out if that is the case). And I always always try to justify each roll, good, bad, or middling. It’s actually fun for me to figure out a reason I know or don’t know something or figure out just how much I am aware if it’s a middling result. It adds more to the backstory later and is interesting. In fact, I’m known to my group to appreciate and laugh when a roll actually fits the narrative rather than, say, the scout rogue knowing more about arcana than the wizard (fun to justify but inconsistent so better the Wizard know). Just recently we had my ranger character make a history check about an area. Since we have mostly new players in that group, and they mostly rolled low, despite some having the proficiency, I decided to give it a shot even though my results were likely to be middling. When I got a high result I justified that my ranger had traversed the area before and picked up rumors through her high perception (which I put uncanny into, it functions like expertise). This made sense and allowed the new players to enjoy the lore drop from the dm. If the rolls hadn’t have been low though, I wouldn’t have chanced rolling at all. But the dm needed someone to roll high enough to justify a lore dump. Anyway, that’s how I play. I try to roll for reasons that make sense more with my character. I also try to avoid too much combat as it isn’t my preference. I enjoy the tactics side of it but I’m more likely to enjoy peaceful relations than anything. In fact, one of my other characters is known to be diplomatic for relations and the dm plays on that for stories and has built that character’s reputation up to reflect that in the missions he is given. Of course, because me and the party often take that route we made sure to build a gold sink that is the fight club in our home base. It does bring in some profit, and has some upkeep to justify it as a sink, but it also allows the players who are feeling a touch bloodthirsty to indulge without ruining their character’s more peaceful reputation they want to keep. In fact, one of my other campaigns I tied my monk in with our peace cleric and allow them to show off their scraps so the cleric can have their fun with their mechanics without having to indulge in battle. We worked this out together to make them good friends so that they were something of a friendly Yin Yang dynamic, even going so far as to make the cleric a leonin and my monk a satyr for the predator/prey look but reverse rolls. The dm appreciates. It was very fun. I genuinely love the collaboration creation of dnd over the power gaming. Heck, even in video games I prefer the more creative and sandbox games over storylines that are all about the next big power up. I like unlocking skills and seeing how I can creatively knit it all together for a unique dynamic. That’s where the fun comes for me. Now, I do play with a power gamer, and that’s fine. We have an understanding and they aren’t unbearable and so we get along when we game together. But I also am aware that yanking them into my fun of creative backstory creation makes them uncomfortable. We talk about it and they like to hear about my process, but don’t like to be the center of attention of it. So I don’t force it. I communicate openly with them and we sometimes just agree to disagree. As long as the dm is in agreement with what the power gamer does, the rest of the group is fine with it. Most of us prefer skill monkey, exploration, or healing aspects of gaming so a power gamer who tanks isn’t a bad thing to invest in. It allows us to better indulge in our preferred roles, especially given they don’t try to overstep when our roles are what’s needed for a situation and let us each shine. So a power gamer but a respectful one. Anyway, sorry for the length, just felt like sharing. Hopefully this amused someone.
@@BLUEBOYISLEDGE I have weaknesses. But I’m also repeating what I’m told about how I’ve been received at tables. I’ve been asked to join tables for what I specifically bring to them. My apologies if that did not amuse you. If you wish to know some of my weaknesses it’s that I’m terrible at voices for one thing and can sometimes be oblivious when flirtations come up, whether it’s in character or not and it’s become something of a running joke that regardless of what insight I pour into my character design, I’ll probably not notice without someone spelling it out to me. And this doesn’t matter if it’s directed at me or other players. I’ll most likely not notice it. I’m also weak on the lore that is commonly known from dnd. This is just some of my weaknesses I’m aware of. I’m sure there is others but none have yet pointed them out to me so I remain oblivious to them. Can’t change what you don’t know about. Hopefully someone I play with will do so with genuine honesty and sincerity so I may make corrections. And I must mention something about my play style. I am not good. I’m not trying to be good. I get fulfillment from being a teammate and assisting others. It’s why I often play characters that aren’t intended to take any sort of center stage in the story, just assist. This is just part of my own personal sense of fulfillment. It’s my own selfish desire and it’s what I get out of playing dnd vs any other type of more independent game. I hope that corrects that misunderstanding. Other than this, my condolences this did not amuse you. Hopefully someone else may share something in these comments that does so.
I had a player that didn't understand why a minimum 14 ability score and 4 feats at lvl 5 wasn't correct and the other players didn't do it. She was a "I check too" player, even when it made no sense or wasn't possible. She stopped playing with us when we asked her to reroll.
1:00 - I mean if you want to be really pedantic, the Valyrians (the in-universe "race" that the Targaryens, Velaryons, and such belong to) in ASOIAF are basically the Elves of that setting, they once had a super empire that was destroyed, they have silver hair, purple eyes, inhumanly pale(in books) and inhumanly beautiful (I prefer the uncanny valley interpretation that they actually look inhuman), they have a predisposition towards having magical powers, and some of them even have power over dragons in some way or another. They are just basically the elves for that setting lol. But yeah letting someone play as a Valyrian in an ASOIAF campaign would not be likely to be balanced, all things considered. Something tells me that fella would insist that they get a dragon or something.
I usually have unnatural luck with my stat roles, but I like to believe that's because with my First major campaign ever, I rolled an 8 or below on every stat. The DM said I could reroll but instead I asked if I could have a 20 in Wisdom since I was a cleric and that I was fine with the rest staying low. He agreed! This was one of my favorite characters to play, and approaching every situation with the wisdom of experiences made for some funny roleplay. My Tiefling Cleric, Vesta, was a sweet and awkward character who functioned as a group mom of sorts. Once, an NPC was taken hostage on the second floor of a shop. The door was magically locked and everyone was struggling to break through the door or to get through the magic. Vesta (and myself as a player) stayed silent as everyone tried to figure out how to break through. I then asked if there was a rock nearby, and proceeded to use said rock to break the window to the shop and hop on through. The party was laughing so hard that our barbarian had to take a short break. Vesta was a simple woman with simple solutions.
Regarding the party face - I played a warlock who slipped into that role because most of his wonderful companions were not that great on charisma. However, I would ask my fellow players every now and then if they were cool with how things were running, as I did not want to ruin their fun.
Bullying at table is not OK any time. As DM you absolutely need to take on the need to have enough balls to kick ass sometimes - because if you dont then other peoples fun is absolutely being compromised and that's not OK, everrr.
Telling people that they can't rely on others to help them but themselves, is extremely harmful. Speaking as someone who frequently has bouts of self unmaking ideation and self loathing, when in this and someone says "THe only one who can help you, is you" it's basically saying "You're screwed." It's important to help others if you can. Even if it's just a little bit, even if you're just there as a friend. Can really save someones life. Also the censorship in this video was obnoxious. But I'm blaming youtube for that one.
First what adventurers are going to panic so much they forget how to open a door? Second what panicked person isn't going to be freaking out both pushing then pulling the door.
17:34 made me a little sad, I doubt shes cowardly, just.. Not in a good position. I've been in positions where someone Im with has acted clearly like an asshole, but i know if i speak to them about it, it'll just make it worse for me later on. Better to leave the harm on one person, than infuriate them more and bring it to you tenfold yk?
Dm: you were in a panic- Me, roaring over him by this point: YOURE GONNA BE IN A PANIC UNLESS YOU START HAVING SOME LIGHTS ON UPSTAIRS seriously, i'd have blown my lid on him
Ran a one shot for my bachelor party for my groomsman and other friends attending my wedding; None of them had played DnD before so I decided to help them create their characters. Told the Paladin player how to roll stats and watched him as he was doing it, and no fucking lie he rolled a total of 18 for 3 of his separate stats. Used the same dice for the first two 18 rolls, and I switched to another set after the 2nd. Lo and behold a third 18, and we were even using a dice tower that tumbles the dice quite a bit, was wild
I honestly don't understand what so many people have against looking someone in the eye and asking, "What is your problem? Why are you acting like this to me?" when someone is being a jerk to them for no apparent reason.
I'm getting tired of repeating this but sadly it sits at the core of about 80% of D&D horror stories: if you don't have the guts to stand up to players don't bother trying to DM. Even amongst friends a lack of spine will almost inevitably end up causing problems with your game. Players naturally tend to push for the most they can get for themselves and their party and if you can't say no you will fail as a DM.
That first story with the DM and the idiot. I would have bounce the moment I found out he is insecure. "I don't have time for all that." Would be my response.
The power gamer thing is kind of interesting in a way, because it also depends on how the DM has people roll their characters. One of the DMs that runs a few games in the group i'm in has us intentionally roll for a "power game" because those are more about having fun and the story and quirkiness than struggling through a battle, but there are others who have us as bare bones characters with almost exact by the book rolls instead and it makes those a more intense and gritty game and aside from the fun and such mentioned before we all know that we can very easily loose our characters in those games. While i 100% agree people shouldn't lie on their rolls and such I also personally use session 0 for character creation so each player gets the back ground of the setting (atleast a general overview that any character would know) as well as informing them on how the characters will be rolled up, and we roll our characters with a partner or in a communal tray in the center just so that EVERYONE knows that the character's stats are legit...There are a number of us in the group, myself included who have wound up with our stats being 18, 18, 17, 17, 16, 16 before any racial things are applied, and oddly for our group it does tend to be fairly common. There's only like 1 or 2 DMs who will sometimes tell the players the background general stuff WAY in advance and have us all make characters before session 0 sending them backgrounds and character info and working on things with us in private before session 0 when it's revealed how we all meet up, if some of us have backgrounds that make sense for us to know each-other ect....If you have a player who you think is continually cheating, then make a rule for all rolls to be done at the table where everyone can see, and not just for the problem player, but for everyone (DM obviously has some things that they wouldn't need to show, but even in our group if the DM rolls a nat20 for instance they will pick up their screen so that the nearest player or players can verify it's a nat 20, doesn't happen often but it's a thing). D&D is a lot about trusting your players as a DM and trusting your DM as a player...Things like this seem the simplest issues to me to have nipped in the bud, but somehow they always seem to get blown out of proportion in these stories. There are ways to go about it. The way i bring it up to my players and such is that it's just a way to make sure EVERYONE is on the same page as to what is happening and keep everyone from being tempted to fudge rolls, as I'm sure everyone who's played before has likely wanted to do if they've gotten to their last death save and miss it by just a point or two and if only the die hadn't rolled just that one more over you'd have passed but no one saw so you WANT to keep this character you put so much effort into...it happens...fudging dice is a thing that i'm fairly sure everyone's been at least tempted to do at least once. Having everyone roll where everyone can see makes sure that the temptation is gone...IDK it's a solution that i came up with because of a couple players i've had in my campaigns and now i just hold all my players to it as a means of being fair and keeping people from throwing a fit and saying "OMG, you're accusing me of cheating?! RUDE!!!" ...look i wouldn't if i didn't have reason, but i tend to be rather nonconfrontational about things like this so it's across the board EVERYONE rolls in the communal tray so everyone can see the rolls so no one can fudge or be tempted to. *shrug* TLDR: think someone's cheating, have EVERYONE do all their rolls in a communal tray so everyone can see all rolls. Also keeps problem player from crying about being singled out so peace at the table is maintained.
the second story about the redonkerous stats reminds me of my second ever made character (never got to play the first) all of my base stats were 15+ and that was with using a roll tower. our DM allowed us to start at level 5...so you can imagine how this worked out for me and several others. good thing is we are about to get wooped so hard we will be forced to reset ourselves and re roll everything. but its all apart of the campaign
I usually go the 4d6 drop the lowest route, but decided to roll a standard array for the players this time every roll was from 12-16. Given that this is the early stage testing for the Final Fantasy 7 based D20 game I've been working on, there's only humans available so there won't be a minus in site.
Turn around and describe how you fireball the Rust Monsters and they're now all dead. If DM takes umbrage, tell him he didn't SPECIFY that they had more than 1 hit point. Then make him describe every. Single. Detail. Of every room to come. Anything HE doesn't specify does not count.
With the story about the guy cheating by giving himself higher stats than he should- I have....The opposite thing going on. I have GODLY Luck with stat rolls- But my DM is chill with it because every time we're introducing characters, *I* offer to the DM "Hey, my Stat roll luck struck again...I'm fully ready to re-roll if you want me to- I don't want to be a nuisance with my constant OP Characters." The lowest stat I have ever had in a Roll for stats game, after modifiers, was a 9
Yeah, for player stats I have two options: Point Buy/Standard Array or "Roll the Physical Dice in Front of Me." If you want to roll for stats, you do it in person where the GM (and preferably the other players) can see it. If I watch you roll the dice and you get 3 18's, cool. If we're playing online, use Point Buy. Period.
DM needs to escape Mr A-hole. Glad OP hasn't anandoned her. At first blamed them for leaving the group but if they hadn't , OP would just be codependent too.
Story 2: A DM of mine was sure I was cheating my dice rolls once, so on our next adventure (we rotated DMs and normally ran 12 or so sessions each, but we had a TPK and the next DM up wasn't ready with his game), he made us use the same 4 d6s and roll it in front of everyone. Each player rolling 4d6 dropping lowest, 6 times each, 5 players. In front of everyone. I rolled 2 18s, 2 17s, a 16 and a 14. He basically sighed, cursed my luck with my dice, and then allowed me to trade my rolls (I offered to swap the rolls with 2 other players because they'd rolled so poorly they would've gotten better stats with point buy; traded 1 of the 18s,1 of the 17s, and the 16 with 14, 12, and 10). I then proceeded to spend the entire first session rolling so many nat 1s, even with halfling luck, that I ended up dying shortly after. The dice gods give and the dice gods take.
I've had the luck to roll characters with excellent stats... And characters who are cursed to suck in every stat. Once I rolled so poorly, my DM told me to reroll because "I've never seen that before, it's unfair, reroll." but constantly good stats all over 14? I've made a lot of characters but never had two, let alone three in a row that lucky.
I remember playing a game where one player claimed he rolled four 18s, a 16, and a 14. Thankfully it was online so I didn't have to look away as I rolled my eyes. XD
I mean, it really wouldn't be hard to include Elves into Game Of Thrones. The Children Of The Forest are without a doubt could be considered some sort of Fae, so Elves arent that much of a stretch of the imagination. That being said, not every fantasy setting has to have tolkenian tropes. That's the beauty of high fantasy. You don't have to shape it into a narrow box.
Well, I read online somewhere (So, take it with a grain of salt) that George RR Martin actually wanted to create a story that WASN'T just "Tolkien-esque", so he purposely tried to lessen the amount of things in his stories that were reminiscent of Tolkien's books.
Keep in mind, the books are written from a maesters viewpoint, and we know they tried to suppress magic. So there's no real way of knowing what would fit or not
To be fair. At the second story, the guy with the power gamer. I also most of the times end up with amazing stats, but, I use an online roller that doesn't allow any modifications and I always inform my dm of the stats. Point number two, everyone in my party has insane stats and we all min max the fuck out of it. Point number 3, this is Pathfinder 1e so not having at least a 18 in your main stat is a redo your character kind of moment. Point number IV, my final stats looked like this 18, 17, 14, 12, 18, 8 and I always roll in the group chat or even if sometimes I don't, I don't lie, and I think I'm one of the most "luck is only for plot armor" kind of guys in our group, because when it comes to fights, I barely hit even though I mostly play martials, but when there's a story beat or an epic moment I roll almost all the time flying colors, which is memorable but it is what it is. So yes, sadly many 5e players at least, like to cheat, I feel like in the older editions, a high average of stats just make you want to survive, and hell it is tough. However, moral of the story, in my opinion, having good stats or min maxing is not bad. Power gaming and cheating is bad however, don't do that, don't be the one who's perfect at everything, because it's boring and takes away from the others.
I'm a lot more okay with a player cheating to get unusually good stats than I am with a DM forcing all player's stats to adhere to a statistical average.
For the one with ridiculous stats, I actually rolled really well for my druid in an upcoming campaign and I talked to my DM about it and decided to take an 8 in charisma for balance. Personally, I don't think single characters should be good at everything and I believe low rolls from time to time are part of the fun of the narrative. There's no reason to cheat in D&D because there's no real way to win so why fudge rolls and stats to try?
GF DM did one super not great thing and didn't have those two talk it out before continuing. Me? If I see two players not get along, I'll figure out what is wrong, chat on both sides and then have people talk it out. And this is the result. It festers until it gets extremely volitile but given how OP is being a little cagey and she easily forwards the complaints of her bf to him, nothing about that table was healthy, even OP. Expecting a victim of a man who has such insecurities that one other guy she speaks postively about gets upset to stand up to him completely? OP was demanding she choose. She was not being a great friend, letting her boyfriend be dismissively rude to OP but its a bit of water to a greasefire. OP just expecting her to do all the legwork and not putting in some work to get they boyfriend's jealousy solved and the boundaries
Yeah, OP shouldve been upfront with how horrible her bf is and that she needs to get away from him ASAP. OP shouldve taken the initiative rather than basically leaving her out to dry when knowing how much trauma she's endured.
So I have actually rolled full 18s. The dm didn't believe me and made me roll again. My second roll around was 18 18 18 17 17 and by then he just gave up and I asked if I should roll the last and he told me no xD
Rust monsters are easy. They go for the most precious material. In most cases that will be gold. Use an unarmored party member to lead the away with these shiny treats. Ez pz.
To be fair to the guy in the intro, I kinda agree with him: I dislike A Song of Ice and Fire partially because there are nothing but boring humans. But you don't see me ask to join campaigns about it.
It's ok to want fantasy races in your fantasy world's, but stating the world as bad because of lacking Elves is dumb. Avatar: The Last Airbender is a great example of am amazing fantasy world without Elves or other races than Human.
The Children of the Forest are definitely not human. And whatever the White Walkers are, I'm pretty sure it's not human. They were human once, but after becoming a White Walker, they became something else.
@@andreavasquez4355 Oh, absolutely. Trust me, I have plenty of other reasons to dislike A Song of Fire and Ice. Them having only humans is just one eason about many others.
Broooo, this comment is not an invitation for open season on crispy.....but brooooo. There is not 'H' in weird, you remind me so much of that family guy skit.
The Children of the Forest are basically elves in Westeros; they're the size of hobbits, but otherwise they're wood elves in basically every way that matters. However they aren't really suitable as a PC race.
I dont really have a “horror” story, but I have a few funny and chaotic stories to share from participating in campaigns with my friends. Would you accept those?
Oh my dear sweet God do not get me started on world of Warcraft elves. I have been going through and converting world of Warcraft races into 5th edition, and have been including non-player races such as Gilblins (the shark goblins from Vashj'ir). Troll tribes and all of the bajillion different types of elves have been my *bane*.
@@CrispysTavern oh, so spin off as in same reality? Would be cool if echos of the heros heroisms were out and about, but without actually encountering the old heros. Though I'm sure either way will be fantastic, you worked marvels for that first campaign! It was the first one I was actually able to get into and subsequent ones have been easier to get into. The best of luck, and wishes.
One of these days that DM from the first story will TPK the whole party in a peaceful tavern night after killing a super tough homebrew monster because they didn't specify that their character would like to breathe lmao
God, the story with Mr. Asshole. "Helping them can't hurt you."
I had to block my best friend today, because he won't get therapy and I can't help him the way he needs. He won't even try to get on a waiting list.
He thinks I "abandoned him". But his behavior was destroying me, and I was letting it because I adored him.
I love him a lot. It isn't love to let someone hurt you. He was ripping me to shreds because he rips himself to shreds. I hope he stops ripping himself up one day.
You did the right thing. I used to be that type of friend and partner till they finally had enough. It was a proper wake up call when they left. I’ve changed to be a much healthier and kinder person in those 3 years since.
He’s gotta want the change, Yknow? I hope he finds it, and I know it hurts, but you did the right thing. He can’t be a good friend to you if he can’t even love himself.
Damn sounds rough, I'm going to the same kind of situation where I don't know anymore if trying to help people online or give them attention is the right call. How are you feeling now?
About the gf DM, I’m honestly concerned the bf is gonna turn out to be abusive. Victims tend to become victims again. It’s a horrible cycle but it’s true. It sounds like he’s, intentionally or not, ruining her games and driving friends away. That’s isolationism and it’s always the first step
If I could slap the like button on this comment a hundred times, I would.
I also love jumping to conclusions
@@gr33nriver77 except they're not jumping to conclusions, they're saying this is what it sounds like. They're not stating it as a fact, but based on what is being presented this is what it sounds like to them. Stating an opinion and jumping to conclusions are two different things.
@@AmazingAutist I also love jumping to conclusions
@@gr33nriver77 speak for yourself then.
First story; this is weird because the DM is just going to get an extremely detailed description of every action from every player and the story will slow to a crawl. First player: "I breathe in and out as I walk down the hall. I also make sure the step with my left foot and right foot in an alternating fashion." Second Player: " I make sure to use my bonus action to blink. I don't want to get dry eyes because I forgot to declare my blinking." and so on.
Yeah, the only game I ever ragequit had a GM like this. Even after I explained to him why I was leaving, with the other players backing me up on my claims, he acted so dismissive about it that it caused one other player to bail as well. I had no clue if the other players would have followed or if GM got his act together because that disastrous session was right before quarantine started.
fr I don't play the game but if somebody tried to pull that shit on me I'd be throwing hands... or the closest available object. Admittedly, I am also oversensitive and very short-tempered, so it's little surprise that something like this would frustrate me to levels of near-homicide.
I'd try the "sarcastic as fuck extremely detailed descriptions of actions" for a bit until either the DM got the hint and stopped being a douche or I got sick of it and just outright quit the game - while calling the DM a few select names and casting aspersions on their parentage and sexual habits.
Yeah, this is a Meatgrinder DM. All they want to see, is your characters dying.
I've seen players that have been legitimately scarred by this kind of malicious GMing, so much so that they treat describing their actions to the GM like they're making wishes on a cursed monkey's paw. It pisses me off so much that I've made averting it part of my unofficial GM Code of Conduct, wherein I promise players to interpret their action descriptions in good faith and never to punish them for omitting something that would be covered under the bounds of common sense.
Sleeping is EXACTLY when Passive Perception comes into play the most.
Also apparently Rust Monsters don't hunt in packs in the lore.
Why would they? Primarily creatures hunt in packs either for their own safety or to make catching and killing their prey far easier.
Rust monsters eat metal ;D
Honestly this is no doubt just the DM intentionally screwing over the players for a laugh x_x
@@PaladinGear15 exactly my thoughts.
Only encounter with multi Rust Monsters that makes sense, is if they're trapped in a location without any/sufficient metal to fill their diet. So a party in plate mail is gonna be fought over like a dead elephant by starving lions and hyenas.
So we'd be talking like demiplane, or a tomb with some lost technology stonework that monsters couldn't burrow through.
You want an anomaly? My very first DnD campaign, i rolled six 18s. In front of the DM. He saw me roll them, and no, the dice were not loaded as other players had used the same dice.
Dream alt account
@EnderCreeper168 not a dream.
DM: "describes rust monster as a cockorach"
Me: "looks up art for rust monster"
looks more like a mix of a shrimp and a grasshopper to me
also call me petty but i'd probably throw my book at that DM's head, if he complains "well you didnt specifically say NOT to throw a book at you"
Throwing a book at the DM's head has my vote.
shropper
Not clicking like cos your at 69, and I'm to childish LOL
@@stevencavanagh7990 Yeah, I've avoided clicking "like" on posts for exactly the same reason.
@@wolf1066See you guys at 169
Any partner who gets as insecure as the DM's boyfriend should be ditched ASAP.
if im quickly accused "are you texting other girls? hm?" sincerely, the only correct answer is "now that you said that, yes. We're broke up."
Story 3
I read this story and I definitely this douchebag is just trying to isolate DM from her friends, and maybe saw OP as either competition or someone who could pull DM away from abuser.
When it comes to situations like this, where you have someone you careabout stuck in the haze of an abusive situation, your best solution is to take a step back but leave the door open… you can’t convince the victim to leave, they have to choose to leave-but when they DO finally leave, you can be there to help them get out.
And don’t threaten the abuser either. They will take it out on the victim-or the victim will pin you with any assault charges.
Let us hope Dm can get out of this.
"That felt good."
As for story 3, my first reaction before the update was something along the lines of "wow, this guy sounds insecure. Wonder if he's worried OP is gonna steal his girlfriend?" And yeah, after the update, I guess I was right despite being jokey about it. It's too bad the "seduce the witch" ploy ended up being what made Mr. Asshole blow up, that sounded like some hilarious hijinks. I hope OP and Rogue get to play their Tulio and Miguel inspired characters someday.
if it doesnt include a musical number about pretending to be gods....i'll be slightly disappointed
As someone who has a weird amount of luck just by default, I make a very strong effort to make sure people physically SEE me roll physical dice. I have had the ridiculous luck to manage multiple 18s on one or two character sheets without trying, and even I glared at my dice wondering what sorcery was giving me such good results. Again, my weird power of being lucky has made me refuse to use digital dice solely because I feel like I would be accused of cheating if people didn’t physically watch it happen.
I once did a variant of the "it was a pull door" BS that i felt was neat. was a facility filled with the most useless magic items possible, and the bottom floor had 2 magic items they used in tandem to lock the vault. First was a door which if you pull it, its a push door, but if you push it its a pull door. The other one was a ring that let you walk through walls, but only walls within 5 feet of an unlocked door.
and while the door was magically BS, it was unlocked.
Get Dr. Kaminko on the phone!
Story about the abusive boyfriend: always stand up for yourself, even if it may make things awkward. It's good for a girl like that, with multiple abusive relationships apparently, to see that things can be different and that it's ok to walk away from the situation/relationship.
Often I imagine what'd happen if you turned the tables on those horror DMs. As for the smug DM in the first story, what if - when someone else runs the next game - they were the only one who got treated that way while the rest of the players were treated normally? "I activate my boots of speed!" "You didn't say you put on your boots, so they're back at the camp." You know, taste of their own medicine and all that?
Reminds me of a story where the DM was supporting a player character about to molest a female party member only for her boyfriend had his character force himself on the molester in the same way despite the DM's discomfort.
The story about the girlfriend DM:
Pro tip, if you're in a group of people and there's clearly one asshole who consistently targets you, leave the group. People need to understand how to stick up for themselves and realize that the "friends" around you aren't worth sticking around with if they won't stick up for you 👍
Also I'm confused by the story because was this online or in person? Seems to go back and forth between messaging and physically doing something
Some people play a mix like that. A lot of the games I'm in are online just because it's easier then driving to people's houses. But we do try to get round a physical table now and then. Could be the same thing here.
sounded to me like an in-person game that had a discord server or something like that where they could all hang out in without it being game night
Exactly. If you're with your friends and one person consistently acts like an asshole to you and they don't react or instead excuse them, then those aren't your friends.
It's really easy as an outside observer to say what the OP, or those around them should do and act like you'd be a total badass and completely own the Problem player, then hop on Reddit and write your own 'I swear, it totally happened and is not made up' horror story.
While we're on the subject of 'what I'd totally do in that situation'. I'd laugh in the guys face and tell the DM this guy is an insecure man child and has clearly already started in on the mental abuse. Then he'd lung at me, I throw a punch, knocking him out following up with an epic one-liner 'Nat 20, bitch.' Then the female DM proceeds to give me BJ while everyone at the table cheers.
Now THAT'S how you 'if I was in that situation', noobs.
@@tarotsushima3332 yeah I could never be in a game where that happens I'm way too confrontational LOL. Nor would I allow it to happen in one of my games.
I wish people weren't so afraid of confrontation, it's not that bad. You're going to feel a hell of a lot better when you stand up and fight back against the insults rather than taking them
I wish gf dm was told something important: if your partner is horrible and abusive to other people but nice to you, it wont last. That mask will fall off and you'll be their next target. It is inevitable with those people. Get out while you can.
Story 1 - See, DM’s like this piss me off because they force the game into a crawl.
You are basically spend your entire game time asking 100 questions absout one room and it kills the mood and is a good way to cause animosity, since they have to deal with a pedantic asshat.
If you need something specific, make a dice check set to a fair DC. Otherwise, let the players just… do the thing
My husband GMed a Savage Worlds game in a setting with no dwarves. On session zero, one player said he wanted to play a dwarf. When asked if he read the world background hand out (PDF of six pages) he said "Why, no!" As if really proud of himself. Said player ended up running one of the NPCs intended as a short encounter as a long term character, not all was lost.
That first story - There are ways of making the players rather than the characters be responsible for checking specific things for traps, switches, etc, work - I get the impression a lot of games in the OSR movement are all about this style of play - but if you're doing that, the general advice I've seen when looking at it from the outside is that you have to run it that if the player's say they're e.g. investigating the picture and there's something behind the picture then if they aren't finding the thing behind it from doing that then at least getting a clue that there's something behind it. No rolls required. Either have the players responsible for checking the ceiling and don't have any roll involved, or have the characters responsible for it (subsumed into the roll). Both are valid playstyles, but mixing the two is both sending mixed expectations while also providing double jeopardy, creating an unfun experience that's going to inevitably create feel-bad moments.
(The opening a door/not letting the party have closed the door when taking their short rest is just bs, though)
Yeah, listen to your players
Our campaign died because of this and it was a long exhausting dead cause we loved the characters and the group and tried to hold on until we couldn't do it anymore. We spoke up multiple times, had discussion rounds to find solutions and improve communication but our DM just reverted back to old ways and told us to deal with it. We did until we reached the breaking point.
Story 1
If you have the Alert feat, you cannot be surprised.
Also a short rest is, like, 30 minutes-hour. That’s basically like kicking back and watching an episode of a standard TV show or a couple episodes of a 30 minute show. No fucking way would folks only be asleep for one hour
usually takes me about a short rest's time just to FALL asleep
Well for the first story he had the Observant feat which only adds a +5 to passive perception and passive investigation it also lets you read lips. Nothing about Surprise immunity. But with that high perception should have still worked.
@@diorkster i mean ifd i heard/ read that correctly the party was in a small-ish room that they thought they sealed the door of
even if there was a "magically appearing" tear in a wall, unless the entire party is somehow facing the opposite wall, at least one of you would have line of sight with the tear and thus any enemy coming through it
though im guessing the dm's "you fell asleep the second i decided you did" excuse exactly for that reason
The emergency meeting sound got me way harder than it should of. Good stuff.
All these people who quit games and block players because they become somewhat upset. It's tragic as hell, as well as pathetic. Nobody tries to fix what's broken, maintain relationships, and work problems out.
The door being a pull I had a DM pull that crap with a locked door with the unlock on our side. And had our rogue try to Theives tool to unlock and said it doesn’t unlock just to explain later after being arrested the lock was on her side like a normal house hold door… like we are not dumb if we see the lock we will unlock it
I can kind of relate to the intro one. I’m running a low fantasy campaign where magic and magic items are exceedingly rare and it can be tricky with players who are used to the high fantasy expectations of standard 5e.
Intro
Trying to cram your favorite stuff into established worlds is often a “That Guy” move.
They either want to power game or they want to play out their fetish.
Wait, so does the guy in the Elf story think AtLA sucks because it has no Elves?
probably
dude probably just has a massive elf obsession
dont know why, filthy, self, righteous, knife ear pricks
Clearly they think any fiction without elves is crap, so like 80% of all fictional media
@@Shadowblader98 But, it's AtLA...
@@andreavasquez4355 and I see it as a masterpiece personally, but the elf person probably disagrees
@@Shadowblader98 We need to find them and ask
I feel bad for that DM and telling but what’s the guys done so far . I hope the relationship does not last for her sake considering she’s admitted to having bad taste in bfs or friends . Plus u can really tell the OP wants to be there for them but he knows her type is not one to wise up immediately so god speed for them
First story, and the DM is making really bad decisions that make no sense what so ever.
#2 story: This is why I prefer to play in games with a point-buy system. The Game Master sets the level of points per the rule book, and you use the guide from that book to set your stats. Getting one or two well-above stats will be offset by having at least one dump stat.
Besides, you could be that one player who rolled poorly on all of their stats.
The DM in the title story needs to get away from that guy and fast, dude seems way too controlling and manipulative.
Final Story
The porblems with a party “face” is either putting the pressure in someone to speak because their charisma is high-or having someone act as the leader just because they have high charisma.
I feel like a real “face” in DND will have the entire party’s best in mind and often ask on their input before rolling that charisma save.
Also steamroiling sucks. It such irl when the police do this to the wrong suspect and let the chaos go for longer, and it sucks in dnd too.
The power gamer story is one of the reasons in my homemade TTRPG rules I almost always have it so stat allocation is “assign these values” instead of rolling.
I never understood power playing. I mean, sure, I want stats that work and don’t make me feel useless to the party, but that’s just it, I don’t want to feel useless FOR THE PARTY. But that also means I want to keep my stats in line roughly with their own too. It’s nice to get good stats but I have been known to reroll stats for lower ones if the party is looking like we are out of alignment. I’m also super careful about showing my dm any and all of my rolls. Even if I can’t get it so they can easily show them in whatever tools we are using (and I play enough games that I have had to learn a variety of them) I always announce my rolls and calculate them aloud (unless dm wants me to keep a roll private but I always screenshot or privately message the roll to them with the math written out if that is the case). And I always always try to justify each roll, good, bad, or middling. It’s actually fun for me to figure out a reason I know or don’t know something or figure out just how much I am aware if it’s a middling result. It adds more to the backstory later and is interesting. In fact, I’m known to my group to appreciate and laugh when a roll actually fits the narrative rather than, say, the scout rogue knowing more about arcana than the wizard (fun to justify but inconsistent so better the Wizard know). Just recently we had my ranger character make a history check about an area. Since we have mostly new players in that group, and they mostly rolled low, despite some having the proficiency, I decided to give it a shot even though my results were likely to be middling. When I got a high result I justified that my ranger had traversed the area before and picked up rumors through her high perception (which I put uncanny into, it functions like expertise). This made sense and allowed the new players to enjoy the lore drop from the dm. If the rolls hadn’t have been low though, I wouldn’t have chanced rolling at all. But the dm needed someone to roll high enough to justify a lore dump. Anyway, that’s how I play. I try to roll for reasons that make sense more with my character. I also try to avoid too much combat as it isn’t my preference. I enjoy the tactics side of it but I’m more likely to enjoy peaceful relations than anything. In fact, one of my other characters is known to be diplomatic for relations and the dm plays on that for stories and has built that character’s reputation up to reflect that in the missions he is given. Of course, because me and the party often take that route we made sure to build a gold sink that is the fight club in our home base. It does bring in some profit, and has some upkeep to justify it as a sink, but it also allows the players who are feeling a touch bloodthirsty to indulge without ruining their character’s more peaceful reputation they want to keep. In fact, one of my other campaigns I tied my monk in with our peace cleric and allow them to show off their scraps so the cleric can have their fun with their mechanics without having to indulge in battle. We worked this out together to make them good friends so that they were something of a friendly Yin Yang dynamic, even going so far as to make the cleric a leonin and my monk a satyr for the predator/prey look but reverse rolls. The dm appreciates. It was very fun. I genuinely love the collaboration creation of dnd over the power gaming. Heck, even in video games I prefer the more creative and sandbox games over storylines that are all about the next big power up. I like unlocking skills and seeing how I can creatively knit it all together for a unique dynamic. That’s where the fun comes for me. Now, I do play with a power gamer, and that’s fine. We have an understanding and they aren’t unbearable and so we get along when we game together. But I also am aware that yanking them into my fun of creative backstory creation makes them uncomfortable. We talk about it and they like to hear about my process, but don’t like to be the center of attention of it. So I don’t force it. I communicate openly with them and we sometimes just agree to disagree. As long as the dm is in agreement with what the power gamer does, the rest of the group is fine with it. Most of us prefer skill monkey, exploration, or healing aspects of gaming so a power gamer who tanks isn’t a bad thing to invest in. It allows us to better indulge in our preferred roles, especially given they don’t try to overstep when our roles are what’s needed for a situation and let us each shine. So a power gamer but a respectful one. Anyway, sorry for the length, just felt like sharing. Hopefully this amused someone.
@@BLUEBOYISLEDGE I have weaknesses. But I’m also repeating what I’m told about how I’ve been received at tables. I’ve been asked to join tables for what I specifically bring to them. My apologies if that did not amuse you. If you wish to know some of my weaknesses it’s that I’m terrible at voices for one thing and can sometimes be oblivious when flirtations come up, whether it’s in character or not and it’s become something of a running joke that regardless of what insight I pour into my character design, I’ll probably not notice without someone spelling it out to me. And this doesn’t matter if it’s directed at me or other players. I’ll most likely not notice it. I’m also weak on the lore that is commonly known from dnd. This is just some of my weaknesses I’m aware of. I’m sure there is others but none have yet pointed them out to me so I remain oblivious to them. Can’t change what you don’t know about. Hopefully someone I play with will do so with genuine honesty and sincerity so I may make corrections. And I must mention something about my play style. I am not good. I’m not trying to be good. I get fulfillment from being a teammate and assisting others. It’s why I often play characters that aren’t intended to take any sort of center stage in the story, just assist. This is just part of my own personal sense of fulfillment. It’s my own selfish desire and it’s what I get out of playing dnd vs any other type of more independent game. I hope that corrects that misunderstanding. Other than this, my condolences this did not amuse you. Hopefully someone else may share something in these comments that does so.
I had a player that didn't understand why a minimum 14 ability score and 4 feats at lvl 5 wasn't correct and the other players didn't do it. She was a "I check too" player, even when it made no sense or wasn't possible. She stopped playing with us when we asked her to reroll.
1:00 - I mean if you want to be really pedantic, the Valyrians (the in-universe "race" that the Targaryens, Velaryons, and such belong to) in ASOIAF are basically the Elves of that setting, they once had a super empire that was destroyed, they have silver hair, purple eyes, inhumanly pale(in books) and inhumanly beautiful (I prefer the uncanny valley interpretation that they actually look inhuman), they have a predisposition towards having magical powers, and some of them even have power over dragons in some way or another. They are just basically the elves for that setting lol.
But yeah letting someone play as a Valyrian in an ASOIAF campaign would not be likely to be balanced, all things considered. Something tells me that fella would insist that they get a dragon or something.
I usually have unnatural luck with my stat roles, but I like to believe that's because with my First major campaign ever, I rolled an 8 or below on every stat. The DM said I could reroll but instead I asked if I could have a 20 in Wisdom since I was a cleric and that I was fine with the rest staying low. He agreed!
This was one of my favorite characters to play, and approaching every situation with the wisdom of experiences made for some funny roleplay. My Tiefling Cleric, Vesta, was a sweet and awkward character who functioned as a group mom of sorts.
Once, an NPC was taken hostage on the second floor of a shop. The door was magically locked and everyone was struggling to break through the door or to get through the magic. Vesta (and myself as a player) stayed silent as everyone tried to figure out how to break through. I then asked if there was a rock nearby, and proceeded to use said rock to break the window to the shop and hop on through. The party was laughing so hard that our barbarian had to take a short break.
Vesta was a simple woman with simple solutions.
Regarding the party face - I played a warlock who slipped into that role because most of his wonderful companions were not that great on charisma. However, I would ask my fellow players every now and then if they were cool with how things were running, as I did not want to ruin their fun.
Bullying at table is not OK any time. As DM you absolutely need to take on the need to have enough balls to kick ass sometimes - because if you dont then other peoples fun is absolutely being compromised and that's not OK, everrr.
Telling people that they can't rely on others to help them but themselves, is extremely harmful. Speaking as someone who frequently has bouts of self unmaking ideation and self loathing, when in this and someone says "THe only one who can help you, is you" it's basically saying "You're screwed." It's important to help others if you can. Even if it's just a little bit, even if you're just there as a friend. Can really save someones life.
Also the censorship in this video was obnoxious. But I'm blaming youtube for that one.
Story 2
This is why when it comes to character builds, my groups have always made it a “let’s meet and discuss in chat/person”
First what adventurers are going to panic so much they forget how to open a door? Second what panicked person isn't going to be freaking out both pushing then pulling the door.
HOLY CRAP MY STORY WAS ACTUALLY READ IN THE INTRO IM SO HYPED
17:34 made me a little sad, I doubt shes cowardly, just.. Not in a good position. I've been in positions where someone Im with has acted clearly like an asshole, but i know if i speak to them about it, it'll just make it worse for me later on. Better to leave the harm on one person, than infuriate them more and bring it to you tenfold yk?
yeah, OP did some classic victim blaming for calling her that.
Jesus Christ, that alarm scared the shit out of me, holy hell...
something really has to be done with this youtube censorship its killed the site and he deserve a platform that does not try to infantilize adults
that felt good - thank you for sharing!
Dm: you were in a panic-
Me, roaring over him by this point: YOURE GONNA BE IN A PANIC UNLESS YOU START HAVING SOME LIGHTS ON UPSTAIRS
seriously, i'd have blown my lid on him
Tell GM you're there if you need them if that ship crashes.
Ran a one shot for my bachelor party for my groomsman and other friends attending my wedding; None of them had played DnD before so I decided to help them create their characters. Told the Paladin player how to roll stats and watched him as he was doing it, and no fucking lie he rolled a total of 18 for 3 of his separate stats. Used the same dice for the first two 18 rolls, and I switched to another set after the 2nd. Lo and behold a third 18, and we were even using a dice tower that tumbles the dice quite a bit, was wild
I honestly don't understand what so many people have against looking someone in the eye and asking, "What is your problem? Why are you acting like this to me?" when someone is being a jerk to them for no apparent reason.
I'm getting tired of repeating this but sadly it sits at the core of about 80% of D&D horror stories: if you don't have the guts to stand up to players don't bother trying to DM. Even amongst friends a lack of spine will almost inevitably end up causing problems with your game. Players naturally tend to push for the most they can get for themselves and their party and if you can't say no you will fail as a DM.
That first story with the DM and the idiot. I would have bounce the moment I found out he is insecure. "I don't have time for all that." Would be my response.
The power gamer thing is kind of interesting in a way, because it also depends on how the DM has people roll their characters. One of the DMs that runs a few games in the group i'm in has us intentionally roll for a "power game" because those are more about having fun and the story and quirkiness than struggling through a battle, but there are others who have us as bare bones characters with almost exact by the book rolls instead and it makes those a more intense and gritty game and aside from the fun and such mentioned before we all know that we can very easily loose our characters in those games. While i 100% agree people shouldn't lie on their rolls and such I also personally use session 0 for character creation so each player gets the back ground of the setting (atleast a general overview that any character would know) as well as informing them on how the characters will be rolled up, and we roll our characters with a partner or in a communal tray in the center just so that EVERYONE knows that the character's stats are legit...There are a number of us in the group, myself included who have wound up with our stats being 18, 18, 17, 17, 16, 16 before any racial things are applied, and oddly for our group it does tend to be fairly common. There's only like 1 or 2 DMs who will sometimes tell the players the background general stuff WAY in advance and have us all make characters before session 0 sending them backgrounds and character info and working on things with us in private before session 0 when it's revealed how we all meet up, if some of us have backgrounds that make sense for us to know each-other ect....If you have a player who you think is continually cheating, then make a rule for all rolls to be done at the table where everyone can see, and not just for the problem player, but for everyone (DM obviously has some things that they wouldn't need to show, but even in our group if the DM rolls a nat20 for instance they will pick up their screen so that the nearest player or players can verify it's a nat 20, doesn't happen often but it's a thing). D&D is a lot about trusting your players as a DM and trusting your DM as a player...Things like this seem the simplest issues to me to have nipped in the bud, but somehow they always seem to get blown out of proportion in these stories. There are ways to go about it. The way i bring it up to my players and such is that it's just a way to make sure EVERYONE is on the same page as to what is happening and keep everyone from being tempted to fudge rolls, as I'm sure everyone who's played before has likely wanted to do if they've gotten to their last death save and miss it by just a point or two and if only the die hadn't rolled just that one more over you'd have passed but no one saw so you WANT to keep this character you put so much effort into...it happens...fudging dice is a thing that i'm fairly sure everyone's been at least tempted to do at least once. Having everyone roll where everyone can see makes sure that the temptation is gone...IDK it's a solution that i came up with because of a couple players i've had in my campaigns and now i just hold all my players to it as a means of being fair and keeping people from throwing a fit and saying "OMG, you're accusing me of cheating?! RUDE!!!" ...look i wouldn't if i didn't have reason, but i tend to be rather nonconfrontational about things like this so it's across the board EVERYONE rolls in the communal tray so everyone can see the rolls so no one can fudge or be tempted to. *shrug*
TLDR: think someone's cheating, have EVERYONE do all their rolls in a communal tray so everyone can see all rolls. Also keeps problem player from crying about being singled out so peace at the table is maintained.
the second story about the redonkerous stats reminds me of my second ever made character (never got to play the first) all of my base stats were 15+ and that was with using a roll tower. our DM allowed us to start at level 5...so you can imagine how this worked out for me and several others. good thing is we are about to get wooped so hard we will be forced to reset ourselves and re roll everything. but its all apart of the campaign
First story, dude was just trying to live his Drizzt Do'Urden fantasy and got mad when he couldn't lol
I usually go the 4d6 drop the lowest route, but decided to roll a standard array for the players this time every roll was from 12-16. Given that this is the early stage testing for the Final Fantasy 7 based D20 game I've been working on, there's only humans available so there won't be a minus in site.
2nd story:
No D&D beats bad D&D, and a DM who cheats is bad D&D. Call them out. One way or the other, problem solved.
THAT FELT GOOD
1st time I was this early, my adventure started in a tavern.
I once rolled character with the DM present. The first 5 rolls were amazing, nothing below 15. The last roll, all ones. My wizard was so weak
Turn around and describe how you fireball the Rust Monsters and they're now all dead. If DM takes umbrage, tell him he didn't SPECIFY that they had more than 1 hit point. Then make him describe every. Single. Detail. Of every room to come. Anything HE doesn't specify does not count.
With the story about the guy cheating by giving himself higher stats than he should- I have....The opposite thing going on. I have GODLY Luck with stat rolls- But my DM is chill with it because every time we're introducing characters, *I* offer to the DM "Hey, my Stat roll luck struck again...I'm fully ready to re-roll if you want me to- I don't want to be a nuisance with my constant OP Characters."
The lowest stat I have ever had in a Roll for stats game, after modifiers, was a 9
Love your videos!
Yeah, for player stats I have two options: Point Buy/Standard Array or "Roll the Physical Dice in Front of Me." If you want to roll for stats, you do it in person where the GM (and preferably the other players) can see it. If I watch you roll the dice and you get 3 18's, cool. If we're playing online, use Point Buy. Period.
DM needs to escape Mr A-hole. Glad OP hasn't anandoned her. At first blamed them for leaving the group but if they hadn't , OP would just be codependent too.
Story 2: A DM of mine was sure I was cheating my dice rolls once, so on our next adventure (we rotated DMs and normally ran 12 or so sessions each, but we had a TPK and the next DM up wasn't ready with his game), he made us use the same 4 d6s and roll it in front of everyone. Each player rolling 4d6 dropping lowest, 6 times each, 5 players. In front of everyone.
I rolled 2 18s, 2 17s, a 16 and a 14.
He basically sighed, cursed my luck with my dice, and then allowed me to trade my rolls (I offered to swap the rolls with 2 other players because they'd rolled so poorly they would've gotten better stats with point buy; traded 1 of the 18s,1 of the 17s, and the 16 with 14, 12, and 10).
I then proceeded to spend the entire first session rolling so many nat 1s, even with halfling luck, that I ended up dying shortly after.
The dice gods give and the dice gods take.
Looking forward to new podcast! Also, none of my friends have finished that CR episode yet, and I am P E R I S H I N G
That felt good for the algorithm!
I've had the luck to roll characters with excellent stats... And characters who are cursed to suck in every stat. Once I rolled so poorly, my DM told me to reroll because "I've never seen that before, it's unfair, reroll." but constantly good stats all over 14? I've made a lot of characters but never had two, let alone three in a row that lucky.
I remember playing a game where one player claimed he rolled four 18s, a 16, and a 14. Thankfully it was online so I didn't have to look away as I rolled my eyes. XD
24:50 Imogen is the party face, but she's not the leader of Bell's Hells, Ashton is.
Bruh, I would’ve been seriously tempted to smack the GM in story one for being THAT asinine.
Story 2: is this what that guy a couple of episodes back that was afraid of people who knew higher level math than he did was on about?
I mean, it really wouldn't be hard to include Elves into Game Of Thrones. The Children Of The Forest are without a doubt could be considered some sort of Fae, so Elves arent that much of a stretch of the imagination. That being said, not every fantasy setting has to have tolkenian tropes. That's the beauty of high fantasy. You don't have to shape it into a narrow box.
Well, I read online somewhere (So, take it with a grain of salt) that George RR Martin actually wanted to create a story that WASN'T just "Tolkien-esque", so he purposely tried to lessen the amount of things in his stories that were reminiscent of Tolkien's books.
I mean unless the story is taking place north of the wall a child of forest isn’t really going to fit in to most stories in ASOIAF
Keep in mind, the books are written from a maesters viewpoint, and we know they tried to suppress magic. So there's no real way of knowing what would fit or not
Great rolls can happen, one of my players rolled 5 natural 20s in a row. And I know he didn't cheat because we play on roll20
To be fair. At the second story, the guy with the power gamer. I also most of the times end up with amazing stats, but, I use an online roller that doesn't allow any modifications and I always inform my dm of the stats. Point number two, everyone in my party has insane stats and we all min max the fuck out of it. Point number 3, this is Pathfinder 1e so not having at least a 18 in your main stat is a redo your character kind of moment. Point number IV, my final stats looked like this 18, 17, 14, 12, 18, 8 and I always roll in the group chat or even if sometimes I don't, I don't lie, and I think I'm one of the most "luck is only for plot armor" kind of guys in our group, because when it comes to fights, I barely hit even though I mostly play martials, but when there's a story beat or an epic moment I roll almost all the time flying colors, which is memorable but it is what it is. So yes, sadly many 5e players at least, like to cheat, I feel like in the older editions, a high average of stats just make you want to survive, and hell it is tough.
However, moral of the story, in my opinion, having good stats or min maxing is not bad. Power gaming and cheating is bad however, don't do that, don't be the one who's perfect at everything, because it's boring and takes away from the others.
I'm a lot more okay with a player cheating to get unusually good stats than I am with a DM forcing all player's stats to adhere to a statistical average.
I've had (still have) a character where I rolled no less than a 12. It can take a long time and a lot of luck to get that....but I did.
THAT felt good 🎉
For the one with ridiculous stats, I actually rolled really well for my druid in an upcoming campaign and I talked to my DM about it and decided to take an 8 in charisma for balance. Personally, I don't think single characters should be good at everything and I believe low rolls from time to time are part of the fun of the narrative. There's no reason to cheat in D&D because there's no real way to win so why fudge rolls and stats to try?
GF DM did one super not great thing and didn't have those two talk it out before continuing. Me? If I see two players not get along, I'll figure out what is wrong, chat on both sides and then have people talk it out. And this is the result. It festers until it gets extremely volitile but given how OP is being a little cagey and she easily forwards the complaints of her bf to him, nothing about that table was healthy, even OP. Expecting a victim of a man who has such insecurities that one other guy she speaks postively about gets upset to stand up to him completely? OP was demanding she choose. She was not being a great friend, letting her boyfriend be dismissively rude to OP but its a bit of water to a greasefire. OP just expecting her to do all the legwork and not putting in some work to get they boyfriend's jealousy solved and the boundaries
Yeah, OP shouldve been upfront with how horrible her bf is and that she needs to get away from him ASAP. OP shouldve taken the initiative rather than basically leaving her out to dry when knowing how much trauma she's endured.
If helping someone is hurting you than your notbhelping them your being used
I love the ASOIAF roleplaying game. 😍
🎵 Mister [censored], you're the one 🎶
🎵 You drain the game of all it's fun 🎶
I like taking out the comma from "wizard, puss"
Step 1: Instead of a.. Say buns, like, "kiss my buns" or "you're a bunshole".
🎶 and with b***ch drop the T, because bich is latin for generosity 🎶
New Shadow Over Kerkonos content on the horizon?
So I have actually rolled full 18s. The dm didn't believe me and made me roll again. My second roll around was 18 18 18 17 17 and by then he just gave up and I asked if I should roll the last and he told me no xD
That felt good
Bruh! Cthulu is more likely to be in the ASOIAF universe than elves
That felt good.
Rust monsters are easy. They go for the most precious material. In most cases that will be gold. Use an unarmored party member to lead the away with these shiny treats. Ez pz.
To be fair to the guy in the intro, I kinda agree with him: I dislike A Song of Ice and Fire partially because there are nothing but boring humans. But you don't see me ask to join campaigns about it.
It's ok to want fantasy races in your fantasy world's, but stating the world as bad because of lacking Elves is dumb. Avatar: The Last Airbender is a great example of am amazing fantasy world without Elves or other races than Human.
The Children of the Forest are definitely not human. And whatever the White Walkers are, I'm pretty sure it's not human. They were human once, but after becoming a White Walker, they became something else.
@@andreavasquez4355 Oh, absolutely. Trust me, I have plenty of other reasons to dislike A Song of Fire and Ice. Them having only humans is just one eason about many others.
@@Xylarxcode I don't count the White Walkers due to them not being exactly a sentient race.
@@Theokal3 That's completely fine.
Broooo, this comment is not an invitation for open season on crispy.....but brooooo. There is not 'H' in weird, you remind me so much of that family guy skit.
You must be new here.
The Children of the Forest are basically elves in Westeros; they're the size of hobbits, but otherwise they're wood elves in basically every way that matters. However they aren't really suitable as a PC race.
I dont really have a “horror” story, but I have a few funny and chaotic stories to share from participating in campaigns with my friends. Would you accept those?
Oh my dear sweet God do not get me started on world of Warcraft elves.
I have been going through and converting world of Warcraft races into 5th edition, and have been including non-player races such as Gilblins (the shark goblins from Vashj'ir).
Troll tribes and all of the bajillion different types of elves have been my *bane*.
Is the shadow of careconos season 2 going to be a completely new story, a loosely connected story, or a continuation of the story?
It is a spin off! The story is largely disconnected, though familiar characters will make an appearance.
@@CrispysTavern oh, so spin off as in same reality? Would be cool if echos of the heros heroisms were out and about, but without actually encountering the old heros. Though I'm sure either way will be fantastic, you worked marvels for that first campaign! It was the first one I was actually able to get into and subsequent ones have been easier to get into. The best of luck, and wishes.
Intro reminds me of the woman who was obsessed with elves to the point of replacing oppressed races in history with them.