*furiously reworks a lot of NPC plot arcs* No but seriously I'm glad I watched this right now, it gives me a few days to alter my plans, I hadn't realized I was actively going to undermine the PC moments with my current plans until you laid it out.
I have some tips and advice on this one. 1) Before a new campaign starts talk to the DM and if practical the other players about the world, story and themes they want to explore in the campaign, Before you look up or start thinking about any mechanical aspects of the character, figure out how they fit into the world that you are going to inhabit. A good character will open up possibilities for where the DM can take the story. Example in a recent campaign we decided it was going to be a story about intrigue, politics and rebellion. I chose to make my character the queens spymaster, giving an anchor point for possible storylines, it was only after this that I chose a race and class that best reflected what I wanted the character to be able to do in the story (It was in a situation where I wasn't able to make most sessions so I chose somebody who would have other responsibilities and means of travelling independently of the party) 2) If you have made quite a few characters and they are coming out a bit samey, try using fortune telling cards to come up with a reading of who the character is, Tarot cards work fine but my preferred cards are archetype cards, I try to make a character who embodies 3 often contradictory archetypes. 3) look at other game systems every once in a while some systems are really optimised towards creating interesting characters, (eg Fate) you can take a lot of lessons from playing these other games back to D & D. One thing that I recommend stealing from another game is that the player characters should know 1 or 2 other player characters before the first session begins, players flesh out this relationship as part of the character creation process.
My character Avery is someone who I figured out the "want vs need" balance. The concept was "we're going to wizard school!", so I made a Human Fighter who is decended from a series of powerful wizards, and cannot do magic in a traditional way. They Want their father's approval as a mage, they Need to self actualize their own self worth.
I do ask my players after every session a question towards their characters. They can be as simple as "what's their favorite food?", to "what are their connections to other people, family, friends, rival's and enemies?" It helped a ton and I always switch between easy questions like their favorite animal (which also give them the opportunity to add to my homebrew world if they wanna add a fantastic animal) and birthdate and more complicated questions like "what do you wish to experience from that game?", "What's the worst your character has done?"
I have a DMPC who joined the party because a player of mine was leaving, he's back now but I still have the DMPC join the fight but I have her leave the scene when I feel like she isn't relevant and she doesn't help the party make chooses if they went with one thing she would go with them. Not to mention I've had supper bad luck with her as well 😆😱 where I've struggled with getting her sneak attack and now she has been cursed with Lythrocampy and will turn into a werewolf. The only magical item she has is a tattoo and her weapons are made out of silver and adimantine but that's it and I'm not giving her anything. Oh and she also is attuned to a ring where if she drops to zero hit points she's perma dead and she'll probably not get brought back to life and I'm fine with that.
Very interesting. As I was ending the creation of my next character, I noticed it was basically a sort of a member of Belmont family with a touch of vampiric powers. I don't know how to avoid being too close of this reference. I don't get your point on getting interested in other PC backgrounds, do you have other ideas ?
Honestly, just go ahead and have a vampiric Belmont type of character. If you want to avoid it being too close to 1-to-1, maybe give the character a different outfit. A robe, cape, and mask? A samurai-style outfit? Anything like that might help, even if you play the character much like a vampiric Belmont.
During my first encounter the other day, im playing a artificer who made and invented guns but thats not what is inportant. She(my pc) is a very sweet and lovely person so She felt bad for the thug that the warlock had used hellish rebuke on so i tried casting frostbite to put out the flames, he burned alive as his arm froze and gave him even more pain due to frostburn, He died. Our warlock player had too threaten me with eldritch blasts so i wouldnt try to heal our enemies. Side note i (who have -1 strenght mod) had more succes with hitting someone with my backpack than shooting things with my guns during all but one time after my warlock buddy was knocked out where i rolled a nat20 with +2mod aiming for the elbow too incapaciate him, which shatted his entire elbow making his arm limp and stopping him from using his mofiers since he was striking with his non-dominant arm. Me hitting that guy later with the backpack sfter he lost his balance made him go prone making it so our cat (who wants to play a proper character next session) could retaliate cus that guy had hit him hard earlier dealing 5 dmg after which i finished him of by standing on his back with one foot and shooting him in the bsck of the head finishing him but his freind also missed me and hit thier employer who bleed out during our fight.
What do you do if the DM takes liberties with a player characters backstory. They never ask beforehand and we have mentioned it on a few occasions but they continue to do it. Other than this one thing Im enjoying the sessions but all the players hate the bogarting of our characters.
In my current campaign the party's Bronze Dragonborn Paladin of Bahamut called aid from his mentors father this Iron dragonborn and he just insulted and hated the player character viewing him as useless and pathetic as the player had defined himself as a servant of Bahamut as a knight of his nation as the student of his mentor and so on everything he did was for someone else at to meet this fallen champion of Bahamut who could kick his ass without his god was a reality check if this person who lacked any powers was simply better than this level 11 paladin of Bahamut with magic items then clearly the issue is the person he lacked power of his own and through that tough love and taunting The player character learned to be his own person and earn these powers of his god no longer was he blessed because there was no other option he actually stepped up and earned them completing the oath of vengeance and Taking an oath of glory being the best he can be in honor of the gods rather than taking vengeance in the name of the gods.
About DMPCs: In the campaign I'm currently playing, me and 2 friends decided we'd all do smaller scale adventures and exchange the DM role, while keeping our characters in the party in a way or another so that it would stay a party. I went first and we're currently somewhere halfway through the second adventure and we went the complete opposite way, aka our characters didn't really help much. My character (fighter/paladin), during my turn, got possessed by a ghost for almost the whole thing, but it was one of many dwarf ghosts who asked the party to free their souls by killing a demon that killed them all in the first place. It allowed me to not worry about playing him right, because outside of his personality switch, he didn't use any of his abilities because the ghost didn't know how to use them (she was a warrior too so she could fight, but not use the Echo fighter options or any paladin stuff) so he wasn't that helpful in fights. Outside fights, as an archaeologist he was able to give some details about the location so the party could understand a bit what happened to them, but as the ghost stepped in, he couldn't do that anymore. That was useful for me because I didn't have to worry about playing him right on top of all the ghosts and monsters, but after hearing you, I realize that even though he didn't take the spotlight as himself, if it wasn't for all the times they rolled a 20 (or I rolled a 1), they wouldn't have shined all that much, and I think it showed on my friend's enjoyment of the thing. Been wondering about where I screwed up for months, so that was really helpful, I'm thankful I found you. Even as a worldbuilding oriented DM, these tips are a gold mine.
Feeding the algorithm. Dude makes a lot of good points. Good video.
Thank you so much, that means the world! I'm gonna keep making these in the hopes that they can help even one person so your encouragement is amazing!
*furiously reworks a lot of NPC plot arcs* No but seriously I'm glad I watched this right now, it gives me a few days to alter my plans, I hadn't realized I was actively going to undermine the PC moments with my current plans until you laid it out.
I have some tips and advice on this one.
1) Before a new campaign starts talk to the DM and if practical the other players about the world, story and themes they want to explore in the campaign, Before you look up or start thinking about any mechanical aspects of the character, figure out how they fit into the world that you are going to inhabit. A good character will open up possibilities for where the DM can take the story. Example in a recent campaign we decided it was going to be a story about intrigue, politics and rebellion. I chose to make my character the queens spymaster, giving an anchor point for possible storylines, it was only after this that I chose a race and class that best reflected what I wanted the character to be able to do in the story (It was in a situation where I wasn't able to make most sessions so I chose somebody who would have other responsibilities and means of travelling independently of the party)
2) If you have made quite a few characters and they are coming out a bit samey, try using fortune telling cards to come up with a reading of who the character is, Tarot cards work fine but my preferred cards are archetype cards, I try to make a character who embodies 3 often contradictory archetypes.
3) look at other game systems every once in a while some systems are really optimised towards creating interesting characters, (eg Fate) you can take a lot of lessons from playing these other games back to D & D.
One thing that I recommend stealing from another game is that the player characters should know 1 or 2 other player characters before the first session begins, players flesh out this relationship as part of the character creation process.
My character Avery is someone who I figured out the "want vs need" balance. The concept was "we're going to wizard school!", so I made a Human Fighter who is decended from a series of powerful wizards, and cannot do magic in a traditional way. They Want their father's approval as a mage, they Need to self actualize their own self worth.
boop bop bam tryna blow this up
DAMN I ENJOY THIS ALGIE RHYTHM HAVE MERCY
Thumbs up for the Tulok plug.
Subbed for the amazing content
“DMs who focus on other things like world building…” TH-cam plays ad. “Just Egg.”
Dude i love the music you use for the portion of the video where you were talking about the rogue. At around 5 minutes
I do ask my players after every session a question towards their characters. They can be as simple as "what's their favorite food?", to "what are their connections to other people, family, friends, rival's and enemies?"
It helped a ton and I always switch between easy questions like their favorite animal (which also give them the opportunity to add to my homebrew world if they wanna add a fantastic animal) and birthdate and more complicated questions like "what do you wish to experience from that game?", "What's the worst your character has done?"
Really great video man. I just found your channel and I am looking forward to watching more videos like this
This is a great video. I really enjoy listening to your stuff. Keep up the good work.
I have a DMPC who joined the party because a player of mine was leaving, he's back now but I still have the DMPC join the fight but I have her leave the scene when I feel like she isn't relevant and she doesn't help the party make chooses if they went with one thing she would go with them. Not to mention I've had supper bad luck with her as well 😆😱 where I've struggled with getting her sneak attack and now she has been cursed with Lythrocampy and will turn into a werewolf. The only magical item she has is a tattoo and her weapons are made out of silver and adimantine but that's it and I'm not giving her anything. Oh and she also is attuned to a ring where if she drops to zero hit points she's perma dead and she'll probably not get brought back to life and I'm fine with that.
engagement
I actually have a gnome alchemist named Jerick Copperhand who simply wants to make friends and see new things.
Very interesting. As I was ending the creation of my next character, I noticed it was basically a sort of a member of Belmont family with a touch of vampiric powers. I don't know how to avoid being too close of this reference. I don't get your point on getting interested in other PC backgrounds, do you have other ideas ?
Honestly, just go ahead and have a vampiric Belmont type of character. If you want to avoid it being too close to 1-to-1, maybe give the character a different outfit. A robe, cape, and mask? A samurai-style outfit? Anything like that might help, even if you play the character much like a vampiric Belmont.
Thoughtful videos
During my first encounter the other day, im playing a artificer who made and invented guns but thats not what is inportant. She(my pc) is a very sweet and lovely person so She felt bad for the thug that the warlock had used hellish rebuke on so i tried casting frostbite to put out the flames, he burned alive as his arm froze and gave him even more pain due to frostburn, He died. Our warlock player had too threaten me with eldritch blasts so i wouldnt try to heal our enemies. Side note i (who have -1 strenght mod) had more succes with hitting someone with my backpack than shooting things with my guns during all but one time after my warlock buddy was knocked out where i rolled a nat20 with +2mod aiming for the elbow too incapaciate him, which shatted his entire elbow making his arm limp and stopping him from using his mofiers since he was striking with his non-dominant arm.
Me hitting that guy later with the backpack sfter he lost his balance made him go prone making it so our cat (who wants to play a proper character next session) could retaliate cus that guy had hit him hard earlier dealing 5 dmg after which i finished him of by standing on his back with one foot and shooting him in the bsck of the head finishing him but his freind also missed me and hit thier employer who bleed out during our fight.
What do you do if the DM takes liberties with a player characters backstory. They never ask beforehand and we have mentioned it on a few occasions but they continue to do it. Other than this one thing Im enjoying the sessions but all the players hate the bogarting of our characters.
Dm lair has a cat cam.
You could have a lizard cam lol
In my current campaign the party's Bronze Dragonborn Paladin of Bahamut called aid from his mentors father this Iron dragonborn and he just insulted and hated the player character viewing him as useless and pathetic as the player had defined himself as a servant of Bahamut as a knight of his nation as the student of his mentor and so on everything he did was for someone else at to meet this fallen champion of Bahamut who could kick his ass without his god was a reality check if this person who lacked any powers was simply better than this level 11 paladin of Bahamut with magic items then clearly the issue is the person he lacked power of his own and through that tough love and taunting The player character learned to be his own person and earn these powers of his god no longer was he blessed because there was no other option he actually stepped up and earned them completing the oath of vengeance and Taking an oath of glory being the best he can be in honor of the gods rather than taking vengeance in the name of the gods.
Disliked the weird voice effects (scary when they randomly happened while listening late at night) but nice vid!
Heh. Zex.
About DMPCs: In the campaign I'm currently playing, me and 2 friends decided we'd all do smaller scale adventures and exchange the DM role, while keeping our characters in the party in a way or another so that it would stay a party. I went first and we're currently somewhere halfway through the second adventure and we went the complete opposite way, aka our characters didn't really help much.
My character (fighter/paladin), during my turn, got possessed by a ghost for almost the whole thing, but it was one of many dwarf ghosts who asked the party to free their souls by killing a demon that killed them all in the first place. It allowed me to not worry about playing him right, because outside of his personality switch, he didn't use any of his abilities because the ghost didn't know how to use them (she was a warrior too so she could fight, but not use the Echo fighter options or any paladin stuff) so he wasn't that helpful in fights. Outside fights, as an archaeologist he was able to give some details about the location so the party could understand a bit what happened to them, but as the ghost stepped in, he couldn't do that anymore.
That was useful for me because I didn't have to worry about playing him right on top of all the ghosts and monsters, but after hearing you, I realize that even though he didn't take the spotlight as himself, if it wasn't for all the times they rolled a 20 (or I rolled a 1), they wouldn't have shined all that much, and I think it showed on my friend's enjoyment of the thing. Been wondering about where I screwed up for months, so that was really helpful, I'm thankful I found you. Even as a worldbuilding oriented DM, these tips are a gold mine.