How to win at D&D, Pathfinder, ect. in two steps. Step one: are you having fun? If yes proceed to step two. Step two: are the other players and the dungeon master also having fun? If both steps are yes, congratulations you are winning at D&D.
I played Pathfinder for a couple of years. I was brought in to replace a player that moved away, and the party needed a ranger. I'd never played one before, but I agreed, and the group's min/maxer tweaked my character in ways I didn't want to go, but I went along for "the good of the group". Problems came up later, and at one point I had to say "My character is this way because you collectively railroaded me into playing her this way when I wanted (other set of feats that would be useful now)" I played until I realized I wasn't having fun.
"I sense something. someone has vomitted and caused someone to fall to their death. I can only assume it was intentional and in no way a tragic accident. Time to teleport to them and execute them for murder" - police in waterdeep apparently
George R R Martin was a DM (well GM). He ran a Superworld campaign for a bunch of other Sci-Fi/Fantasy authors in the 80s, which eventually inspired the Wild Cards book series.
Okay, that second story was confusing. I'd never want to sit at a table with a DM/GM that would get on me for "describing things wrong". That, was pointless.
I hear you. That was just awful. Severed absolutely no good purpose. And infected everyone with negative vibes. Now I'm all for hoisting people on their own petard by using what they say against them. As in you as a DM ask them if they are sure about an action and they still do it, well that's on them. But this was a few steps over the line here.
In 5E, describing the action costed an Object Interaction, so after killing an enemy with the battleaxe, I could not equip and throw a javelin as my second attack. In the same battle, another player was allowed a second object interaction to equip throwing weapons, because darts are small enough to hold two in one hand.
Yes and no. It's not RAW but he has homebrewed it in Critical Role Campaign 3 (even though, yes, he wrote the class and could have made it RAW), specifically for a small character using Heavy weapons. So yeah he would probably allow it, but this clearly wasn't a fully planned out thing, just something he and the player had discussed.
from the opening story: If your story needs a particular set of functions to happen its on you the DM to supply them regardless of the characters that show up, if you need someone who can navigate the domains of dread then you give the party a magic map. If the party has no tank, thats on them, they have to deal with it kill the wizard, kill the sorcerer, kill the bard whatever, but if no one wants to play a tank you dont push anyone into it. (besides the best tanks are wizards that dipped for heavy armor anyways)
That story isn't really the "Matt Mercer Effect." That phenomenon is normally the idea that certain DM's or tables are inferior/bad because they don't do extensive descriptions of people and locations, do accents, or have extremely detailed locations with a huge cast of pre-made NPCs. In this case, it's more just normal rules-lawyering using Mercer's game as an example because he wrote the class.
The dragon heist story is so bad, there is no way the bartender (a retired adventure and all around chad of a man) would objectify anyone, let alone a customer. And as far as the hole to the underdark goes….ya that’s just a thing in the middle of the tavern, the Yawning portal. It’s totally normal, but more importantly I’m pretty sure that you use a sort of rope and pulley system to get up and down, not a ladder…oh there is also a troll that is supposed to come up and break up the bar fight, so if anything the troll should of been hit.
Thy name is Mercer. If I had a nickel for every time some one said to me as a DM, "It's what Matt Mercer would do!" I'd still be broke. And I want to keep it that way.
It's a tad too edgy for me, but I can see myself playing one who firmly believes he was trained wrong and that's why some of his abilities hurt him. Make him a bit of a goofy well meaning character.
@DGHavoc907 is it really any edgier than some of the rogue sub classes tho? Lol I like that tho. Also I full heartedly don't even mind edgy. If thats what ppl like it's what they like
If you mean the intro, it sounded like the DM wanted that more than the players. And they didn't even play a character, they played a tool that could have been better off as an NPC.
For the third story, giving an NPC personalities is indeed quite challenging, but for NPC who aren't meant to be too important, I usually just stick with 'this is their main gimmick/quirk', rather than giving them a full personality. Like a druid who is really bad at directions and gets lost a lot. That's not a personality, that's a quirk. He's got nothing beyond that. Or a barbarian with short term memory loss, so he keeps misplacing things. A greedy loanshark with a soft spot in his heart for children who secretly donates to the orphanage but doesn't want anyone to know that because it'll ruin his rep with the shady underworld he frequently deals with. My latest one was a seafaring pirate with ornitophobia (fear of birds) and his wisecracking buddy who is always talking about getting a parrot to 'complete their pirate look', but they're not so secretly the best of buddies. NPC's like that. They don't have full personalities, but they have a quirk that makes them stand out and gives players something to remember them by. 'Oh, she's that bitch of a guildmaster with the chip on her shoulder' or 'Oh, right, the traveling bard who can't sing for shit so she invited one of the players to play a duet'. It does the trick. When you say 'full personality' I think of fully fleshed out characters with full backstories, tragedies, romance and successes in life and a wide variety of things that make up people. What I make are one gimmick hacks, lol. I do make more fleshed out NPC's too, but just the important plot hook ones. The side characters are one note gimmicks and my players seem happy with that.
Blood Hunter is a very interesting class idea, but it's a little bit of a headache for those of us who run official content only. Hell hath no fury like a player wanting to play one scorned.
So the guards instantly know about an accidental murder but not about an adult doing digusting things with a kid? sounds like double standards "you see an adult doing illegal things with a child" "Oh really? well I drag the adult to the tavern with a hole to the under dark and drop them screaming to their doom"
That intro story was, yeah. While I wasn’t in the same boat (being used as just a plot device disguised as a character), I WAS guilt tripped by my first ever DM into playing my Cleric, iver, and over, even when I wasnmt having fun, became obsolete since we gained 2 paladins who healed more than I was (as a HEALING domain PF1e cleric), and was basically a punching bag between being a Half Orc and a cleric of Sarenrae. The guilt tripping was him ALWAYS saying “but the party only made it this far because kf YOU”, and then within an hour, saying “the oarty doesn’t NEED a cleric, you’re just a bonus”.
Also, the magical school guy sounds like some LC things I've been a part of, in specific VtM, where they just decide to play at random, and expect constant engagement. I like Living Community things, where there's some channels to RP in during down time, but it only works for me to have scheduled sessions with those.
That Pathfinder story, I think the lesson there is as a DM you shouldn't be afraid to ask for a mechanical explanation and to be open to the idea that you misunderstood something. Had that DM simply said, "Hey, that sounds badass and narratively appropriate given the sizes involved, but could you describe this for me using game mechanics so I'm sure I understand your turn?" he wouldn't have gotten the same information without putting the player on the defensive.
I had a past GM who did some stupid shit that killed the mood and flow of the session for no damn reason aside for causing trouble and being an ass. We were in a dungeon with some gapping breaks in the floor between rooms we had to cross in order to keep exploring. We decided to set a plank across the gap and another player would try balancing as he crossed, in addition to this as a failsafe I said I tied a rope to my companions waist so that if he fell I could prevent him from going into the AbYsS or land on spikes. The intent was absolutely clear. Simple, right? But ApPaReNtLyyy I didn't say the magic words. I didn't specifically I was holding the rope fairly taut and was feeding out the line as my companion got farther from me. Therefor the DM said I was holding the END of the rope at complete slack, so when my companion failed his save and fell off the plank, he fell completely and took all that damage. I was in shock, jaw dropped, we all were, then argued my intent and protested. I'm sorry to any other DMs out there if that makes me a troublesome player but he had NEVER, EVER done some dumb shit like that beforehand to even give us the impression that we needed to be that extremely specific in our narration of our actions. EVER. NOR SINCE! If your going to do dumb shit to your players that is going to completely unnecessarily kill the mood and potentially make your players dislike you more and more. then you don't deserve players in your game at all.
About narrating attacks: I run very simple system (Mörk Borg) where combat is just rolling to hit and rolling for defense. Without me or players narrating combat would be extremely boring, it would be just "You hit, you take damage" and imo no matter how advanced combat system is the fighting still should be described. Any description is better than nothing even simple "You wounded him in arm"
Agree. I let my characters know what AC they need to hit (unless there is a rare case that I want that hidden) so they can determine immediately if their attack hits. They roll to hit and damage dice at the same time to save time. So they immediately know if they hit and how much damage they do, and can use that to help describe their attack. I notice many DMs that describe the attack and there's often a bit of wasted time for the player to roll, tell the DM what they rolled, DM to say it hits and have them roll damage, and then the DM describes their attack. I feel it works more fluidly and the players have more fun describing their attack.
it is extremely confusing how little the GM explained the setting of this (or I guess maybe the OP just doesn't remember but.... I'm pretty sure he was also just bad). Like, I recently played the opening of Dragon Heist (unfortunately it didn't get very far) and the tavern in question ist he Yawning Portal. The "hole to the underdark" is actually the tavern's main attraction, the titular Yawning Portal, and leads not to the Underdark but to the entrance of a very dangerous dungeon, the Undermountain. also, there's no.... ladder. There's a bucket. You pay the innkeeper to go down into the dungeon as a risk/reward thing as an adventurer, riding a bucket/sling/thing. You can't knock someone off of thatjust by puking on them. None of this whole thing makes any sense at all. I mean obviously not the main point of hte horror story but my god man.
Fourth Story: Oh boy, always love a good old-fashioned "teenage boy players abuse female player character" story. At least in this one it was just the DM being shitty in this one, though. Hopefully it's something they grow out of. They probably will. Also, kinda gross that the DM wouldn't let the player play a younger character, possibly because then they couldn't make -those kind- of jokes about them without coming off like a total creep.
I definitely feel parts of the first story. I joined a homebrew campaign with huge emphasis on dragons and all my character ideas kept getting taken. The DM encouraged me to be a paladin to a dragon god and pretty much dictated how I should play him and level him up. We had a fun couple of sessions before the game was put on indefinite hold but I just wasn't feeling that character.
A giant deadly drop in the middle of a building frequented by drunk people sounds like a real stupid health hazard. Did the tavern keep get the lot for cheap or something?
I think (spoilers for Critical Role campaign 3) it's because Chetney is also a small creature that took the order of the lycan Blood Hunter subclass and when he transforms Matt did let him grow bigger (even if it wasn't written in the RAW of Blood Hunter). I can imagine homebrewing it that you can have your were-form grow larger up to a maximum of medium size because that's just fun in my eyes lel, but obviously each table can do what they want 😌 Like I wouldn't let a medium size creature turn into a large werewolf, but having a small or tiny create turn medium seems like the chaotic fun I love 🤣
Personally I'd have the character transform to the size of the creatures size they transform into. A werewolf is medium size. A medium size character turns into a medium size werewolf. A small character turns into a medium size werewolf. A large creature turns into a medium size werewolf. Again that would be MY DM ruling though, and another DM (like this one) has their reason for ruling differently, and that needs to be respected. If my players disagree with a ruling I make, I allow them to make a case explaining their reasoning. Consider their points and make a final decision of whether to stick with my previous way or change my mind, and that decision is final.
@@Logan_Baron That ruling could lean into a fun, weird build where you go for Rune Fighter/Lycan BH, go Giant, go Werewolf, so you get the AntMan effect of being a Medium werewolf with the Giant boosts. I like it, as horrifically inefficient as that meme would be.
Third Story: "We don't have set times to play"...? What? How does this work? People have jobs and other obligations that are more important than some RP game. I don't understand how you can just say "Whenever I feel like playing the game, that's when it happens." That's insane. Not to mention that when the game does happen, it provides nothing for the players to go off of. It's not just that the NPCs are bland, it's that the DM is giving zero direction or narrative hooks for anything to happen. "You shouldn't have just gone for romance, you should've pursued something else." Sounds like OP tried to find out what else there was to do, and you gave them nothing. They tried to latch onto the one single thing provided to them, and it led nowhere. It feels like the DM was going for some kind of forum play-by-post thing where you just write paragraphs about what you're doing at this amazing magical school, and hopefully someone yes-and's you to make a story happen, but that's not how TTRPGs work; the GM is there, in part, to help give you a goal to attain if there isn't one readily available for you, and this guy just wasn't doing his job effectively.
Actually… yeah that is just lying around in that tavern. It’s what the tavern is famous for, a sunken tower that looks like a well and acts as the entrance to Undermountain. That tavern is literally the starting point for delving into the dungeon
The intro story... like, the DM couldn't give the party a helpful (DM)NPC? Or a magic item that lets them travel between plains? Turning a PC into a plot device is shitty.
Intro: Hrm, couldn't the DM just have made the paladin into a DMPC? The party would still continue their journey, and OP would get to roll up a character they want to play.
The first story with the paladin is the reason I tell new players 'there doesn't need to be a healer' and 'its not really that big of a deal to have two people playing the same class, I've done it before and it was fun.' Play what you want. It's easy to just grab a character that other people suggest when your new but, new or not, character building is meant to inspire players. Get inspired.
in a homebrewed campaign I am in, we have 3 characters with atleast 2 levels in Warlock. Sure, one of them is a Paladin multiclass so you can guess why they chose a level in Warlock and me as an artificier technically have a healing spell, but I don't have it prepared and it is overall good fun even though we all complain how expensive healing potions are xD
Some DMs forget that the game is FOR the players first, themselves second. If someone is not having fun, figure out why and readjust, full stop. If the DM disagrees, why are they running?
A goblin wereshark should turn into a dogfish. I think I might have to include some of these next time my players are at sea. The random start times thing sounds like a game ruiner even if the DM was actually good.
Might sound a little cringe, but my first DM was actually my father. Da had picked up dnd during his time in the service and ma learned so she could spend time with him. Years later when I was born they had a weekend tradition where some friends would come over with snacks and drinks and they would just have a session. I thought it was the coolest and wanted to play, but it wasn't until I was....twelve I think that they allowed me to play with them.
That's not cringe, that's just a nice excuse to bond with family and friends. I became a DM for my family to give us an excuse to come together for a whole day once a month, and also to allow my sister a chance to host us at her new appartment since it's too small for people to stay for long otherwise. TTRPGs are very good for bringing people together for hours at a time with often very little physical/monetary requirements to make the games work.
Im pretty sure thats not in the rules of blood hunter, but chetney is treated as a medium creature in hybrid form. But thats just a house rule im pretty sure
Man, the DM in the second story was disturbingly anti-roleplay. Describing how you do something is supposed to be a fun way of adding to your character and giving the other players something to react to. It's okay for them to sometimes not be completely canon. Whenever anyone gets the last hit, my DM always asks them to "describe our kill", and sometimes we come up with cool Mortal Kombat finishers for bigger enemies. That's fun.
Matt Mercer’s iconic “How do you want to do this?” will always be in my list because I want my players to have that moment to be glorious in a way that the Doom Slayer will either nod at or give a thumbs up to.
I DM for my close friend group and siblings- as well as my mother whenever she wants to join in. I guess that most of you can probably guess who the problem player was, that's right, my little brother. He's only a year younger than me but his characters are always Rogues or artificers that he bullies me into giving the ability of bending reality. The only good character that he ever played was a rogue named Mister Potato. This was a for a campaign my mother DMed, he made it his personal mission to be the best greatest player in the party for her specifically. Every time I would DM a campaign and let him in it he would whine and whine about how I wouldn't let him have high-level spells or how I told him that he couldn't create a five-by-five ft block of gold at first level as an artificer without having the proper components. He decided not to subclass in artillery and then wanted me to allow him to make AR-15 type guns in a medieval world. At third level. I told him he had a specific amount of spell slots and had to wait until the next day to create anyting because he had used them all up and he threw a tantrum. Eventually I caved because he's my little brother and I didn't want to cause any lasting family problems. He got his gun but he had no ammo for it so he asked if he could turn arrows for his Longbow into bullets. Again, I told him he had no spell slots. Again he bullied me into letting him do it. All the other players of this campaign, my best friends and my mother were getting tired of his shenanigans and requested a long rest so that he wouldn't be breaking the rules to do what he was trying to do. We all agreed that they should probably do that and they did a long rest. The Paladin Minotaur, my mom's character was the one who kept watch because they were in the middle of the forest. My brother's character, a deep gnome artificer, decided to wake up in the middle of the night and try to sneak out and work on his secret project. He wouldn't tell me what the secret project was. At this point, one of the characters, a changeling Druid named HoneyBee had befriended an infant Dragon turtle and carried it around in her bag. It was not a bag of holding but I allowed her to do so because it was exceedingly adorable. The baby dragon Turtle wasn't old enough to use its breath attack and could only understand basic draconic. The Gnome artificer decided that he wanted to kill the poor thing and take its shell. The changeling was holding her baby dragon Turtle tightly while she slept and the turtle was enjoying the cuddles, even though stealth Was His Highest stat she woke up and slapped him in the face. I explicitly had told all my players in the beginning that this was a no major PVP campaign, meaning you couldn't kill the other player characters that were counted as in the party. He immediately tried to pull out his new gun on her and said that he wanted to shoot her face in. I told him he couldn't do that, and he threw another tantrum explaining the all he wanted to do with use the Dragon turtle shell for his secret new project. I again asked him what the secret new project was and he refused to tell me. He declared that he was leaving the party and that he would start by killing the Druid who was right in front of him, and her Dragon turtle. He forgot that the Paladin was also watching him and she absolutely smited him. She was merciful and told him that she wouldn't kill him if he decided to rejoin the party, he threatened to leave the campaign and I ended the session there and then. In the next session he decided to rob a bar in Neverwinter, he was arrested and left the campaign in his fit of rage for being thrown in jail. He had been robbing any building he could possibly get into throughout the campaign so his sentence was pretty severe. Was I the terrible person?
As a GM, if I got the "But Matt Mercer-" I think I would simply invite them to go play with Matter Mercer if the weren't happy with our game. Tbf, I don't run DnD, so it's unlikely.
Ah the conversation about different games is interesting to me, reminds of the game I was playing in today. I’ll be honest, it’s a quiet game. Not may of the others engage in verbalizing much on the game and the is trying to get us to solve a mystery…a mystery that I’m still clueless on because I was left out of the initial session 0 and I don’t feel the dm followed up well with me in regards filling me in with what was discussed. The amount of times I have had to ask for clarification is more than most of my games I play, of which I’m part of quite a few, I’ll admit. But! I digress. While I have my frustrations with the game, I do try to keep the ball rolling and basically changed the idea I had of my character and made her more proactive so she is likely to provoke the group into encounters. Before anyone gets up into arms about that, if I sense my character is about to start on I stop, briefly and say, out of character “I’m pretty sure there is an encounter ahead, is everyone ok with me provoking this?” and if I get an ok, I’ll go ahead with my character. I like to check in. I try to, especially with this group in which many MANY of the other players are far too quiet. They are efficient in combat and seem to know well how to use their characters and mechanics, but it is difficult to prompt roleplay, especially in a game where the dm has set us up on an adventure to do just that. For all that I’m complaining though, and yes I’m aware most of this comes off as a complaint, I do actually find fun in some of the moments. I am getting to explore a character that is far less passive than most characters I play. Oh sure, some characters I’ve played are more leaders of their party, it those ones mostly lead via being supportive or protective or wise. For this character I’m playing a somewhat cocky, loud mouthed, just deeply good person with an insatiable curiosity. She actually lectured some guards about losing their report the party had made the night before until she raised such a fuss that a supervisor came out and she went over the issue again. Yes, she nearly got thrown in jail, it she made some good points. Basically she told the guards, “you are either in on this or incompetent and I’m not sure which is worse for the people you are supposed to protect.” Yes she said that to them, yes they were offended, yes I actually got the party laughing about that. That aside, her main thing is that she is an entertainer and performer, but is the party rogue and expert in arcana (her mom was a wizard and taught her a few things, even left her a book of rituals). She is young, she is cocky, but she keeps the story moving. I enjoy that about her. I may not have liked the circumstances that made me have to create her this way, but she is a joy to play. At least I do have one other player who engages with her and is the one player who reached out to me when I asked if anyone wanted to weave backstories together. That story is that he was hired on my the traveling troupe my character grew up with to care for the animals (player is a ranger) that were used during travel and then decided to stay with her when the majority of the troupe retired and went their separate ways. So he is used to her antics and she is for his too. She indulged him to have a picnic by the cliffs while she was busking for coin. And he indulged her to follow the suspicious cloaked figures down an alley (who she then tackled). So there is good moments there. Our barbarian is getting more into it too as they tried (but hilariously failed) to encourage the crowd to tip more for the performance.
I think for the smaller size thing, even though by RAW weapons crafted to be used by races smaller then medium are suppose to do less damage, most DMs just have them to regular weapon damage. If i'm remembering correctly. In most cases I don't think a DM cares either about the "if you're smaller then medium then you have disadvantage to use heavy weapons thing" since it doesn't matter that much if a kobold can suddenly use a greatsword, but the easiest way to get a DM to care about rules as written is to try and argue with them, as that will almost guarantee a GM will look up exactly how something is written and will use it that way just to spite you.
for the guy in the intro story, his dm should've just had an npc following the party to handle the stuff he shoved onto op. It is not the players' responsibility to make the game work at the expense of their own enjoyment. the point of dnd, like any game, is to have fun, and if you aren't, something needs to change.
I absolutely hate “welcome to session 1, none of you know each other, you are in X location, you have been given no plot hooks yet. What do you do?” I had a GM do that once in the Dresden Files TTRPG, it was the only session we had, it was horrible. All of our characters had really cool backstories that could have been pulled from for plot hooks but he gave us 0 description of the world around us and 0 things happening. So we all just did.. nothing? The dragon sion went looking for shiny objects to buy in stores. The musician played his instrument in his usual bar. The bounty hunter went to check his job board and was given a choice of jobs to choose, he picked one, immediately after the GM said that he was hoping he’s go for the other job that was much cooler (then why give a choice). I was a shapeshifter thief, I went looking for deep pockets to pick… nothing happened the whole time. The soon and I trie to force something to happen but searching high and low for ANYTHING and even acting out of character just to try and find something to do. Then after like an hour or two of this the GM says “you all hear a massive explosion at the docks”. So of course we all ran from our different locations to check it out. We’re told that a boat was on fire… and then the session ended.
"It's what Matt Mercer would do!" is the new "It's what my character would do!", i.e. an excuse that wangrods pull out to justify their idiot behavior.
Honestly, it's MORE damning than the classic one. I, personally, have USED "it's what my character would do," but like... I'm as surprised as the rest of my table, and there is a very loud "Apparently????" afterwards, because sometimes a character just goes off the cuff and you didn't expect it at all, and the only real explanation you can give is "Uh, apparently that's something [character] wants to do, I guess???" Meanwhile, "Matt Mercer would do this" is just you wanting to guilt trip your DM by basically going "Oh, your game is bad compared to CritRole, how about you make it better for me?"
So.... the DM in that last story sounds pretty awful and the situation should've been handled a myriad of better ways. One thing though, I am actually running W:DH myself and the tavern with the hole in the centre to the Underdark is actually the Yawning Portal with the hole to the Underdark being the well the tavern is built around that leads unto Undermountain. The module starts people off there and has enemies crawl up as an introductory fight.
...Oh no, a player describing combat in a way that actually is interesting to listen to rather than listing what they're doing purely mechanically. Like, the reason that a lot of folk aren't really into combat heavy games is because - particularly D&D and Pathfinder where there's often a board involved and everything's regimented to that board rather than games with more narrative level combat - there's only so many ways you can narrate 'I cast fireball' or 'I swing my sword'
Intro Story: The fact that they were essentially forced into a role like that is trash. "You can play in the game, but you can only play a thing the party needs, and it has to be this race and have this background because I need someone in my story with this specific ability", then when that character dies, saying, "Well you have to stay around because my story won't work without someone with that specific ability"... Then either don't make your story about requiring that ability, or make a DMPC whose main role in the group is to use that ability. This is someone bringing in a player to fill a gap their group unintentionally made, which sucks, but they took it a step further by essentially saying "I made you a premade character to play as with no real motivation."
Not a hole into the Underdark... a well into the Undermountain. The central feature of the Yawning Portal and one of the most iconic places in the Forgotten Realms... Durnan wouldn't be objectifying women either. That DM has issues...
Yeah, DM was wrong with the Blood Hunter player. **IF** the class lets you grow to one size larger, then yes, you would no longer have disadvantage with heavy weapons. Sounds like the DM just wasn’t willing to give the player *anything* if fear of them taking more. I understand not wanting to give an inch least they take a mile, but the inch in question was within the rules.
the class does not make you grow a size. you transform but stay the same size that is why this has worked for most of D&D. and even using Chetney is not a good example since his form was Given a power boost by a god to do that.
Story 1: I swear each time I hear about 5e's neutered Ravenloft setting I weep for the modern players. Anyway, yes OP, cure spells hurt undead. inflict wounds heal them. Simple solution tho: make a mist walker that isn't a drone for whatever watered down BBEG is in this ravenloft-lite campaign. Story 2: I hate Critical Role. Not because of anything its done or not done, but because fanboys/girls want to act out some sort of fanfic-larp and get mad when its not like they envisioned at 2 AM while staring at their matt mercer poster. Onto the story: I can maybe think a veteran player wouldn't know seldom used rules like small creatures getting disadvantage blah blah blah, it can be hard to keep track but its hard to imagine an old timer from previous editions becoming such a suck up for matt mercer. Maybe OP meant it in that he's played a lot of 5e but if that's true then he should know these rules and is actively trying to cheat and using matt as a scapegoat. Story 3: DM sounds like a rules lawyer. Someone who needs the games to be RAW at all times like its a chess game. Story 4: was this some weird homebrew magic system the DM created? but this sounds like it would be either incredibly complicated to make, or easily broken. And OP is a furry, of course. So... this entire campaign is just... highschool. its harry potter and the nothing burger of redditban. It sounds like the kind of D&D where the DM is using the players as a therapy tool to relive their teenage years. it'd be sad if it weren't so pathetic. Story 5: Since when do highschools sponsor gaming groups? Honestly. I once got a detention for reading the 3e monster manual at the ass end of biology. Its also weird how the group of 15-17s would be 'that's too young' and then start 'objectifying' their friend's female character. I could believe both or neither happening but one but not the other is weird. Okay, as it goes on I could see young kids thinking this is how the world is. They see popular media and social media and think getting roofied is normal in skeevy bars. does it happen? maybe. But this sounds like an immature game of D&D from immature people. hardly a horror story.
Well. I'm not Matt Mercer, I never claimed to be Matt Mecer and I never aimed to be like him. That being said if you want to play with Matt Mercer, go to Matt Mercer.
really just some crabby dms in this one , i just wonder do they perhaps think before they say these egotistical statements while pumping up their chest . i really feel for that last story and such a shame
I belive Matt did when it came to Chutney being a size larger for some rp thing. But that's besides the point. Whats wrong with small players using great weapons? That's just s basic sword for another race. It doesn't make sence to me and it defiantly felt like the dm could have talked about it better. I use the phrase " this is what we'll do for now I'll look up the rule after and get back to you guys" I feel like for the second story it was mostly on the dm for not being experienced enough and having a kinda hard on for RAW not intended. Sure he can say later he was gona fenagle the subclass to allow water breathing but ....not to let the guy take up the same amount of space on the board just cause some other player might want to use the hybrid mechanic to get reach??? Just play a bug bear. Just use a polearm with the feat. Like. . Its also gona take that player 3 levels to get the transfor.ation and might not even work in the game world with those characters.
In the base rules, Small creatures have disadvantage on weapons with the Heavy property, primarily because how the heck is this halfling gonna use a human-sized Greatsword, with the handle being half as tall as he is? A human's longsword may be a halfling's Greatsword, but size-wise that just doesn't add up, and the most a Halfling will get out of a Halfling-sized Greatsword is about what you'd get with a Longsword in two hands. The Heavy property is just a mechanical explanation for simple logic, as annoying as it can sometimes be (Gotta get my Kobold's +2 Longbow she got off an NPC fighter resized to a Shortbow because the bow is twice her size).
that was only do to the mini. Matt still has chet rules wise at a small size. this is not intended. what is on the page is what is intended. if matt wanted you to change size than he would have put in on the class.
In DnD a goblin with 20 strength can't use a heavy crossbow without disadvantage, but a human with 9 strength can. I love DnD but if we have to be honest, the rules are full of bullshits like that.
While I did start playing after I was an edgy teenager I learned to play with some edgy man children who refused to grow up so it was just as bad as the last story
First off...Im pretty Sure the "Cant be Heal because Undead".....is an actual RAW thing for some spells....soo xD maybe that new player should have at least looked that up before saying it was a "DM ruling" but last I checked Reborn aren't considered Undead?? Spells that wont heal "Undead": Cure Wounds/Mass Cure Wounds Healing Word/Mass Healing Word Healing Spirit Prayer of Healing Spare the Dying Raise Dead [other spells that bring you back to lifework on Undead] Reincarnate requires a Humanoid so will only work on Humanoid Undead Heal/Mass Heal Power Word: Heal
Second story is catastrophic. The player is annoying but there’s something off about the dm as well. I wouldn’t know how to explain it, just a feeling. Also, the heavy weapon rule in this day and age… yawn. “High stake dnd” sure.
It was an intro story so maybe it just wasn't covered but between the personality and the way the paladin plays... isn't that on the player? I didn't hear anything about them being required to have no personality but, even if that were the case, deadpan matter-of-fact characters have some diversity between them based on what they choose to focus on and how they take things literally. Likewise, you can choose your spells and how you move throughout encounters. The DM is DEFINITELY wrong for that bit at the end, where they try to guilt trip the OP into playing the same thing again, don't get me wrong. They're the DM so it's always possible to play the revived character as an NPC or create a new one whole cloth. I just don't see, given how the story is presented, what makes those other things the DM's fault when they explicitly asked the OP in a session 0 what they wanted and, when OP wasn't sure, gave them some stuff to help fit into the game.
OP admitted the personality of the character was probably their own fault. But it's worth noting the player was new and used as a tool for the party instead of being allowed to make a character that's actually their own.
Opener: yeah, this isbjust bad. No D&D better than bad. 1st. DM in the right. The guy was acting like a child not getting their way. 2nd story: this is a fame about story telling, and i had DMs prefer or encourage what this plaulyer did.if the DM had an issiue that was legit, they could ask how many actions that took 3rd.a closet case in your closet? 4th: well if that isn't a bunch of red flags, i don't know what is
Interesting fact about GRRM... The long running and loved Wild Cards superhero anthologies and setting was created out of a Superworld RPG that Martin GM'd for his local writer's group. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Cards
How to win at D&D, Pathfinder, ect. in two steps. Step one: are you having fun? If yes proceed to step two. Step two: are the other players and the dungeon master also having fun? If both steps are yes, congratulations you are winning at D&D.
I like the fact you included the DM there it feels like they get forgotten about when it comes to having fun sometimes.
I couldn't have said it better!
I played Pathfinder for a couple of years. I was brought in to replace a player that moved away, and the party needed a ranger. I'd never played one before, but I agreed, and the group's min/maxer tweaked my character in ways I didn't want to go, but I went along for "the good of the group". Problems came up later, and at one point I had to say "My character is this way because you collectively railroaded me into playing her this way when I wanted (other set of feats that would be useful now)"
I played until I realized I wasn't having fun.
"I sense something. someone has vomitted and caused someone to fall to their death. I can only assume it was intentional and in no way a tragic accident. Time to teleport to them and execute them for murder" - police in waterdeep apparently
CSI: Vomicide Division
So fun fact about the tavern of the yawning portal: that ladder would need to be like, 150 feet tall.
George R R Martin was a DM (well GM). He ran a Superworld campaign for a bunch of other Sci-Fi/Fantasy authors in the 80s, which eventually inspired the Wild Cards book series.
OH! The more you know.
When was he alive?
He's still alive currently
Okay, that second story was confusing. I'd never want to sit at a table with a DM/GM that would get on me for "describing things wrong".
That, was pointless.
omg i was genuinely confused
I hear you. That was just awful. Severed absolutely no good purpose. And infected everyone with negative vibes.
Now I'm all for hoisting people on their own petard by using what they say against them. As in you as a DM ask them if they are sure about an action and they still do it, well that's on them. But this was a few steps over the line here.
I guarantee it was only brought up because he was mad his big encounter was knocked prone so easily in his mind.
In 5E, describing the action costed an Object Interaction, so after killing an enemy with the battleaxe, I could not equip and throw a javelin as my second attack. In the same battle, another player was allowed a second object interaction to equip throwing weapons, because darts are small enough to hold two in one hand.
@schwarzerritter5724 except this was pathfinder not 5E
Matt Mercer literally didn't say that.
Got to love when those people have their delfection backfire.
Dont even try to debate these people, just pray they quarantine themselves and they never break free.
It's one thing to expect your DM to be matt mercer, it's another to expect them to be your fantasy version of mercer who gives you extreme favoritism
Yes and no. It's not RAW but he has homebrewed it in Critical Role Campaign 3 (even though, yes, he wrote the class and could have made it RAW), specifically for a small character using Heavy weapons. So yeah he would probably allow it, but this clearly wasn't a fully planned out thing, just something he and the player had discussed.
from the opening story:
If your story needs a particular set of functions to happen its on you the DM to supply them regardless of the characters that show up, if you need someone who can navigate the domains of dread then you give the party a magic map. If the party has no tank, thats on them, they have to deal with it kill the wizard, kill the sorcerer, kill the bard whatever, but if no one wants to play a tank you dont push anyone into it. (besides the best tanks are wizards that dipped for heavy armor anyways)
Bladesinger, the best dodgetank Ever.
I'd think at that point a DMPC is needed, or at least an NPC who gets them through the plot obstacle and takes hits for them.
Or let the party hire a meatshield for a share of the treasure at the local tavern if no one wants to play a tank, but they do want one
That story isn't really the "Matt Mercer Effect." That phenomenon is normally the idea that certain DM's or tables are inferior/bad because they don't do extensive descriptions of people and locations, do accents, or have extremely detailed locations with a huge cast of pre-made NPCs. In this case, it's more just normal rules-lawyering using Mercer's game as an example because he wrote the class.
It's essentially the same as name-dropping Jeremy Crawford, I agree.
Thank you so much for covering my story! I almost screamed out of joy when I saw my story come up!!!!!!❤❤❤
The dragon heist story is so bad, there is no way the bartender (a retired adventure and all around chad of a man) would objectify anyone, let alone a customer.
And as far as the hole to the underdark goes….ya that’s just a thing in the middle of the tavern, the Yawning portal. It’s totally normal, but more importantly I’m pretty sure that you use a sort of rope and pulley system to get up and down, not a ladder…oh there is also a troll that is supposed to come up and break up the bar fight, so if anything the troll should of been hit.
Yeah, the crap show described has nothing to do with the adventure, has everything to do with the weirdo running the game.
Thy name is Mercer. If I had a nickel for every time some one said to me as a DM, "It's what Matt Mercer would do!" I'd still be broke.
And I want to keep it that way.
The DM in that last story totally wanted the player to age up his character so he could creep on her.
Little tip: the reborn is not really undead. It is something of in between undead and alive. So it can be healed.
Looove the skits! Again, not the main point, but the flavor it and your commentary adds is so fun!
... I misread the title as "Femboy invokes the Matt Mercer effect..." and now I'm slightly disappointed.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with the blood hunter class. I mean the dudes Def in the wrong but it's a fine class
It's a tad too edgy for me, but I can see myself playing one who firmly believes he was trained wrong and that's why some of his abilities hurt him. Make him a bit of a goofy well meaning character.
Yeah, I meant to make a Tavern Tip about how I'm actually a big fan of Blood Hunter.
I forgot. Whoops.
@DGHavoc907 is it really any edgier than some of the rogue sub classes tho? Lol I like that tho. Also I full heartedly don't even mind edgy. If thats what ppl like it's what they like
@@BurroughsProductions fair point
Isn't blood hunter Mercer's ode to Witchers??? Or am I misrememberinh
I hate that the Dm/group wants someone to not play their own character. In the first story
If you mean the intro, it sounded like the DM wanted that more than the players. And they didn't even play a character, they played a tool that could have been better off as an NPC.
For the third story, giving an NPC personalities is indeed quite challenging, but for NPC who aren't meant to be too important, I usually just stick with 'this is their main gimmick/quirk', rather than giving them a full personality. Like a druid who is really bad at directions and gets lost a lot. That's not a personality, that's a quirk. He's got nothing beyond that. Or a barbarian with short term memory loss, so he keeps misplacing things. A greedy loanshark with a soft spot in his heart for children who secretly donates to the orphanage but doesn't want anyone to know that because it'll ruin his rep with the shady underworld he frequently deals with.
My latest one was a seafaring pirate with ornitophobia (fear of birds) and his wisecracking buddy who is always talking about getting a parrot to 'complete their pirate look', but they're not so secretly the best of buddies. NPC's like that. They don't have full personalities, but they have a quirk that makes them stand out and gives players something to remember them by. 'Oh, she's that bitch of a guildmaster with the chip on her shoulder' or 'Oh, right, the traveling bard who can't sing for shit so she invited one of the players to play a duet'. It does the trick.
When you say 'full personality' I think of fully fleshed out characters with full backstories, tragedies, romance and successes in life and a wide variety of things that make up people. What I make are one gimmick hacks, lol. I do make more fleshed out NPC's too, but just the important plot hook ones. The side characters are one note gimmicks and my players seem happy with that.
Thank you for your videos, Crispy! They help me get through my 11 hour night shifts!! From one aesexual to another, bless you.
Blood Hunter is a very interesting class idea, but it's a little bit of a headache for those of us who run official content only. Hell hath no fury like a player wanting to play one scorned.
So the guards instantly know about an accidental murder but not about an adult doing digusting things with a kid? sounds like double standards
"you see an adult doing illegal things with a child" "Oh really? well I drag the adult to the tavern with a hole to the under dark and drop them screaming to their doom"
That intro story was, yeah. While I wasn’t in the same boat (being used as just a plot device disguised as a character), I WAS guilt tripped by my first ever DM into playing my Cleric, iver, and over, even when I wasnmt having fun, became obsolete since we gained 2 paladins who healed more than I was (as a HEALING domain PF1e cleric), and was basically a punching bag between being a Half Orc and a cleric of Sarenrae. The guilt tripping was him ALWAYS saying “but the party only made it this far because kf YOU”, and then within an hour, saying “the oarty doesn’t NEED a cleric, you’re just a bonus”.
I enjoy those little skits way too much XD
ROFL the callback to "weird slapping noises".
Also, the magical school guy sounds like some LC things I've been a part of, in specific VtM, where they just decide to play at random, and expect constant engagement. I like Living Community things, where there's some channels to RP in during down time, but it only works for me to have scheduled sessions with those.
That Pathfinder story, I think the lesson there is as a DM you shouldn't be afraid to ask for a mechanical explanation and to be open to the idea that you misunderstood something.
Had that DM simply said, "Hey, that sounds badass and narratively appropriate given the sizes involved, but could you describe this for me using game mechanics so I'm sure I understand your turn?" he wouldn't have gotten the same information without putting the player on the defensive.
I had a past GM who did some stupid shit that killed the mood and flow of the session for no damn reason aside for causing trouble and being an ass. We were in a dungeon with some gapping breaks in the floor between rooms we had to cross in order to keep exploring. We decided to set a plank across the gap and another player would try balancing as he crossed, in addition to this as a failsafe I said I tied a rope to my companions waist so that if he fell I could prevent him from going into the AbYsS or land on spikes. The intent was absolutely clear. Simple, right?
But ApPaReNtLyyy I didn't say the magic words. I didn't specifically I was holding the rope fairly taut and was feeding out the line as my companion got farther from me. Therefor the DM said I was holding the END of the rope at complete slack, so when my companion failed his save and fell off the plank, he fell completely and took all that damage.
I was in shock, jaw dropped, we all were, then argued my intent and protested. I'm sorry to any other DMs out there if that makes me a troublesome player but he had NEVER, EVER done some dumb shit like that beforehand to even give us the impression that we needed to be that extremely specific in our narration of our actions. EVER.
NOR SINCE!
If your going to do dumb shit to your players that is going to completely unnecessarily kill the mood and potentially make your players dislike you more and more. then you don't deserve players in your game at all.
About narrating attacks: I run very simple system (Mörk Borg) where combat is just rolling to hit and rolling for defense. Without me or players narrating combat would be extremely boring, it would be just "You hit, you take damage" and imo no matter how advanced combat system is the fighting still should be described. Any description is better than nothing even simple "You wounded him in arm"
Agree. I let my characters know what AC they need to hit (unless there is a rare case that I want that hidden) so they can determine immediately if their attack hits. They roll to hit and damage dice at the same time to save time. So they immediately know if they hit and how much damage they do, and can use that to help describe their attack. I notice many DMs that describe the attack and there's often a bit of wasted time for the player to roll, tell the DM what they rolled, DM to say it hits and have them roll damage, and then the DM describes their attack. I feel it works more fluidly and the players have more fun describing their attack.
Man, that last story. Reminds me of my earliest forays into TTRPG
Ewwww! That last one was very... yeah... Noping right out of that game would have been the smart move.
it is extremely confusing how little the GM explained the setting of this (or I guess maybe the OP just doesn't remember but.... I'm pretty sure he was also just bad). Like, I recently played the opening of Dragon Heist (unfortunately it didn't get very far) and the tavern in question ist he Yawning Portal. The "hole to the underdark" is actually the tavern's main attraction, the titular Yawning Portal, and leads not to the Underdark but to the entrance of a very dangerous dungeon, the Undermountain. also, there's no.... ladder. There's a bucket. You pay the innkeeper to go down into the dungeon as a risk/reward thing as an adventurer, riding a bucket/sling/thing. You can't knock someone off of thatjust by puking on them. None of this whole thing makes any sense at all. I mean obviously not the main point of hte horror story but my god man.
Describing things wrong story. My, my, my... that is some knit picking there.
"He would not fucking say that." - the Cartman pronouns meme
Fourth Story: Oh boy, always love a good old-fashioned "teenage boy players abuse female player character" story. At least in this one it was just the DM being shitty in this one, though. Hopefully it's something they grow out of. They probably will. Also, kinda gross that the DM wouldn't let the player play a younger character, possibly because then they couldn't make -those kind- of jokes about them without coming off like a total creep.
I’m willing to bet that if Matt Mercer had been in these situations he would say that he’s not the DM, it’s not his game so it’s not his call to make.
I definitely feel parts of the first story. I joined a homebrew campaign with huge emphasis on dragons and all my character ideas kept getting taken. The DM encouraged me to be a paladin to a dragon god and pretty much dictated how I should play him and level him up. We had a fun couple of sessions before the game was put on indefinite hold but I just wasn't feeling that character.
A giant deadly drop in the middle of a building frequented by drunk people sounds like a real stupid health hazard. Did the tavern keep get the lot for cheap or something?
I think (spoilers for Critical Role campaign 3) it's because Chetney is also a small creature that took the order of the lycan Blood Hunter subclass and when he transforms Matt did let him grow bigger (even if it wasn't written in the RAW of Blood Hunter). I can imagine homebrewing it that you can have your were-form grow larger up to a maximum of medium size because that's just fun in my eyes lel, but obviously each table can do what they want 😌 Like I wouldn't let a medium size creature turn into a large werewolf, but having a small or tiny create turn medium seems like the chaotic fun I love 🤣
Personally I'd have the character transform to the size of the creatures size they transform into. A werewolf is medium size. A medium size character turns into a medium size werewolf. A small character turns into a medium size werewolf. A large creature turns into a medium size werewolf. Again that would be MY DM ruling though, and another DM (like this one) has their reason for ruling differently, and that needs to be respected. If my players disagree with a ruling I make, I allow them to make a case explaining their reasoning. Consider their points and make a final decision of whether to stick with my previous way or change my mind, and that decision is final.
@@Logan_Baron That ruling could lean into a fun, weird build where you go for Rune Fighter/Lycan BH, go Giant, go Werewolf, so you get the AntMan effect of being a Medium werewolf with the Giant boosts. I like it, as horrifically inefficient as that meme would be.
this is you can't use Chetney as an example. critical role fans forget he got his transformation supercharged a god. he is the exception not the rule.
Third Story: "We don't have set times to play"...? What? How does this work? People have jobs and other obligations that are more important than some RP game. I don't understand how you can just say "Whenever I feel like playing the game, that's when it happens." That's insane. Not to mention that when the game does happen, it provides nothing for the players to go off of. It's not just that the NPCs are bland, it's that the DM is giving zero direction or narrative hooks for anything to happen. "You shouldn't have just gone for romance, you should've pursued something else." Sounds like OP tried to find out what else there was to do, and you gave them nothing. They tried to latch onto the one single thing provided to them, and it led nowhere. It feels like the DM was going for some kind of forum play-by-post thing where you just write paragraphs about what you're doing at this amazing magical school, and hopefully someone yes-and's you to make a story happen, but that's not how TTRPGs work; the GM is there, in part, to help give you a goal to attain if there isn't one readily available for you, and this guy just wasn't doing his job effectively.
I'm pretty sure Matt does have Chetney grow to Medium size when he transforms......I'd still side with the DM, but just a weird point of interest.
I'm pretty sure he stays small, as most of the flavor Travis uses implies that he needs to jump UP towards enemies.
Actually… yeah that is just lying around in that tavern. It’s what the tavern is famous for, a sunken tower that looks like a well and acts as the entrance to Undermountain. That tavern is literally the starting point for delving into the dungeon
The intro story... like, the DM couldn't give the party a helpful (DM)NPC? Or a magic item that lets them travel between plains? Turning a PC into a plot device is shitty.
Intro: Hrm, couldn't the DM just have made the paladin into a DMPC? The party would still continue their journey, and OP would get to roll up a character they want to play.
I thought the same thing. Maybe DM thought it'd help the new player get a hang of the game somehow.
22:48 As someone who’s done that when they were little and hit the grass, that would NOT hurt at all. Face planting would hurt though
I'm super super new to DMing but I can't imagine trying to do it without a schedule or preparation
Matt mercer would not approve of invoking his name to defend such BS, he would even be disgusted.
The first story with the paladin is the reason I tell new players 'there doesn't need to be a healer' and 'its not really that big of a deal to have two people playing the same class, I've done it before and it was fun.' Play what you want. It's easy to just grab a character that other people suggest when your new but, new or not, character building is meant to inspire players. Get inspired.
in a homebrewed campaign I am in, we have 3 characters with atleast 2 levels in Warlock. Sure, one of them is a Paladin multiclass so you can guess why they chose a level in Warlock and me as an artificier technically have a healing spell, but I don't have it prepared and it is overall good fun even though we all complain how expensive healing potions are xD
Some DMs forget that the game is FOR the players first, themselves second. If someone is not having fun, figure out why and readjust, full stop. If the DM disagrees, why are they running?
A goblin wereshark should turn into a dogfish. I think I might have to include some of these next time my players are at sea.
The random start times thing sounds like a game ruiner even if the DM was actually good.
Does a tabaxi wereshark become a catfish?
Might sound a little cringe, but my first DM was actually my father. Da had picked up dnd during his time in the service and ma learned so she could spend time with him. Years later when I was born they had a weekend tradition where some friends would come over with snacks and drinks and they would just have a session. I thought it was the coolest and wanted to play, but it wasn't until I was....twelve I think that they allowed me to play with them.
That's not cringe, that's just a nice excuse to bond with family and friends. I became a DM for my family to give us an excuse to come together for a whole day once a month, and also to allow my sister a chance to host us at her new appartment since it's too small for people to stay for long otherwise. TTRPGs are very good for bringing people together for hours at a time with often very little physical/monetary requirements to make the games work.
That's not cringe. My son and I take turns DMing with my husband and his gf
3rd story seems in the beginning like the dm can world build but can't actually bring characters to life and can't really characterize.
I only just whated this video and as a fan of the mighty nien from crit role I could hear the very subtle theme song in the background 🎵 🎶 🎵 🎶
‘ar-TIF-iss-er’ There is no ice in artificer.
@@hiltondayz th-cam.com/video/3KZiNqLeKqM/w-d-xo.html
@@hiltondayz Can U see the links?
Im pretty sure thats not in the rules of blood hunter, but chetney is treated as a medium creature in hybrid form. But thats just a house rule im pretty sure
Man, the DM in the second story was disturbingly anti-roleplay.
Describing how you do something is supposed to be a fun way of adding to your character and giving the other players something to react to. It's okay for them to sometimes not be completely canon.
Whenever anyone gets the last hit, my DM always asks them to "describe our kill", and sometimes we come up with cool Mortal Kombat finishers for bigger enemies. That's fun.
Matt Mercer’s iconic “How do you want to do this?” will always be in my list because I want my players to have that moment to be glorious in a way that the Doom Slayer will either nod at or give a thumbs up to.
I DM for my close friend group and siblings- as well as my mother whenever she wants to join in. I guess that most of you can probably guess who the problem player was, that's right, my little brother. He's only a year younger than me but his characters are always Rogues or artificers that he bullies me into giving the ability of bending reality.
The only good character that he ever played was a rogue named Mister Potato. This was a for a campaign my mother DMed, he made it his personal mission to be the best greatest player in the party for her specifically. Every time I would DM a campaign and let him in it he would whine and whine about how I wouldn't let him have high-level spells or how I told him that he couldn't create a five-by-five ft block of gold at first level as an artificer without having the proper components. He decided not to subclass in artillery and then wanted me to allow him to make AR-15 type guns in a medieval world. At third level. I told him he had a specific amount of spell slots and had to wait until the next day to create anyting because he had used them all up and he threw a tantrum. Eventually I caved because he's my little brother and I didn't want to cause any lasting family problems. He got his gun but he had no ammo for it so he asked if he could turn arrows for his Longbow into bullets. Again, I told him he had no spell slots. Again he bullied me into letting him do it. All the other players of this campaign, my best friends and my mother were getting tired of his shenanigans and requested a long rest so that he wouldn't be breaking the rules to do what he was trying to do. We all agreed that they should probably do that and they did a long rest. The Paladin Minotaur, my mom's character was the one who kept watch because they were in the middle of the forest. My brother's character, a deep gnome artificer, decided to wake up in the middle of the night and try to sneak out and work on his secret project. He wouldn't tell me what the secret project was. At this point, one of the characters, a changeling Druid named HoneyBee had befriended an infant Dragon turtle and carried it around in her bag. It was not a bag of holding but I allowed her to do so because it was exceedingly adorable. The baby dragon Turtle wasn't old enough to use its breath attack and could only understand basic draconic. The Gnome artificer decided that he wanted to kill the poor thing and take its shell. The changeling was holding her baby dragon Turtle tightly while she slept and the turtle was enjoying the cuddles, even though stealth Was His Highest stat she woke up and slapped him in the face. I explicitly had told all my players in the beginning that this was a no major PVP campaign, meaning you couldn't kill the other player characters that were counted as in the party. He immediately tried to pull out his new gun on her and said that he wanted to shoot her face in. I told him he couldn't do that, and he threw another tantrum explaining the all he wanted to do with use the Dragon turtle shell for his secret new project. I again asked him what the secret new project was and he refused to tell me. He declared that he was leaving the party and that he would start by killing the Druid who was right in front of him, and her Dragon turtle. He forgot that the Paladin was also watching him and she absolutely smited him. She was merciful and told him that she wouldn't kill him if he decided to rejoin the party, he threatened to leave the campaign and I ended the session there and then.
In the next session he decided to rob a bar in Neverwinter, he was arrested and left the campaign in his fit of rage for being thrown in jail. He had been robbing any building he could possibly get into throughout the campaign so his sentence was pretty severe.
Was I the terrible person?
There was a fourth player in the campaign, a halfling fighter, but she slept through the entire major event with the dragon turtle and my brother
As a GM, if I got the "But Matt Mercer-" I think I would simply invite them to go play with Matter Mercer if the weren't happy with our game. Tbf, I don't run DnD, so it's unlikely.
Ah the conversation about different games is interesting to me, reminds of the game I was playing in today. I’ll be honest, it’s a quiet game. Not may of the others engage in verbalizing much on the game and the is trying to get us to solve a mystery…a mystery that I’m still clueless on because I was left out of the initial session 0 and I don’t feel the dm followed up well with me in regards filling me in with what was discussed. The amount of times I have had to ask for clarification is more than most of my games I play, of which I’m part of quite a few, I’ll admit. But! I digress. While I have my frustrations with the game, I do try to keep the ball rolling and basically changed the idea I had of my character and made her more proactive so she is likely to provoke the group into encounters. Before anyone gets up into arms about that, if I sense my character is about to start on I stop, briefly and say, out of character “I’m pretty sure there is an encounter ahead, is everyone ok with me provoking this?” and if I get an ok, I’ll go ahead with my character. I like to check in. I try to, especially with this group in which many MANY of the other players are far too quiet. They are efficient in combat and seem to know well how to use their characters and mechanics, but it is difficult to prompt roleplay, especially in a game where the dm has set us up on an adventure to do just that. For all that I’m complaining though, and yes I’m aware most of this comes off as a complaint, I do actually find fun in some of the moments. I am getting to explore a character that is far less passive than most characters I play. Oh sure, some characters I’ve played are more leaders of their party, it those ones mostly lead via being supportive or protective or wise. For this character I’m playing a somewhat cocky, loud mouthed, just deeply good person with an insatiable curiosity. She actually lectured some guards about losing their report the party had made the night before until she raised such a fuss that a supervisor came out and she went over the issue again. Yes, she nearly got thrown in jail, it she made some good points. Basically she told the guards, “you are either in on this or incompetent and I’m not sure which is worse for the people you are supposed to protect.” Yes she said that to them, yes they were offended, yes I actually got the party laughing about that. That aside, her main thing is that she is an entertainer and performer, but is the party rogue and expert in arcana (her mom was a wizard and taught her a few things, even left her a book of rituals). She is young, she is cocky, but she keeps the story moving. I enjoy that about her. I may not have liked the circumstances that made me have to create her this way, but she is a joy to play. At least I do have one other player who engages with her and is the one player who reached out to me when I asked if anyone wanted to weave backstories together. That story is that he was hired on my the traveling troupe my character grew up with to care for the animals (player is a ranger) that were used during travel and then decided to stay with her when the majority of the troupe retired and went their separate ways. So he is used to her antics and she is for his too. She indulged him to have a picnic by the cliffs while she was busking for coin. And he indulged her to follow the suspicious cloaked figures down an alley (who she then tackled). So there is good moments there. Our barbarian is getting more into it too as they tried (but hilariously failed) to encourage the crowd to tip more for the performance.
I think for the smaller size thing, even though by RAW weapons crafted to be used by races smaller then medium are suppose to do less damage, most DMs just have them to regular weapon damage.
If i'm remembering correctly.
In most cases I don't think a DM cares either about the "if you're smaller then medium then you have disadvantage to use heavy weapons thing" since it doesn't matter that much if a kobold can suddenly use a greatsword, but the easiest way to get a DM to care about rules as written is to try and argue with them, as that will almost guarantee a GM will look up exactly how something is written and will use it that way just to spite you.
for the guy in the intro story, his dm should've just had an npc following the party to handle the stuff he shoved onto op. It is not the players' responsibility to make the game work at the expense of their own enjoyment. the point of dnd, like any game, is to have fun, and if you aren't, something needs to change.
I absolutely hate “welcome to session 1, none of you know each other, you are in X location, you have been given no plot hooks yet. What do you do?” I had a GM do that once in the Dresden Files TTRPG, it was the only session we had, it was horrible. All of our characters had really cool backstories that could have been pulled from for plot hooks but he gave us 0 description of the world around us and 0 things happening. So we all just did.. nothing? The dragon sion went looking for shiny objects to buy in stores. The musician played his instrument in his usual bar. The bounty hunter went to check his job board and was given a choice of jobs to choose, he picked one, immediately after the GM said that he was hoping he’s go for the other job that was much cooler (then why give a choice). I was a shapeshifter thief, I went looking for deep pockets to pick… nothing happened the whole time. The soon and I trie to force something to happen but searching high and low for ANYTHING and even acting out of character just to try and find something to do. Then after like an hour or two of this the GM says “you all hear a massive explosion at the docks”. So of course we all ran from our different locations to check it out. We’re told that a boat was on fire… and then the session ended.
I don't care if that last DM is young, he needs to be taken out back and beaten. It might prevent him from becoming worse as he gets older.
"It's what Matt Mercer would do!" is the new "It's what my character would do!", i.e. an excuse that wangrods pull out to justify their idiot behavior.
Honestly, it's MORE damning than the classic one. I, personally, have USED "it's what my character would do," but like... I'm as surprised as the rest of my table, and there is a very loud "Apparently????" afterwards, because sometimes a character just goes off the cuff and you didn't expect it at all, and the only real explanation you can give is "Uh, apparently that's something [character] wants to do, I guess???" Meanwhile, "Matt Mercer would do this" is just you wanting to guilt trip your DM by basically going "Oh, your game is bad compared to CritRole, how about you make it better for me?"
If you kill someone by vomiting into a hole into the underdark, do you get xp for the kill 🤔
So.... the DM in that last story sounds pretty awful and the situation should've been handled a myriad of better ways. One thing though, I am actually running W:DH myself and the tavern with the hole in the centre to the Underdark is actually the Yawning Portal with the hole to the Underdark being the well the tavern is built around that leads unto Undermountain. The module starts people off there and has enemies crawl up as an introductory fight.
Matt Mercer doesn't give a duck about that player
...Oh no, a player describing combat in a way that actually is interesting to listen to rather than listing what they're doing purely mechanically. Like, the reason that a lot of folk aren't really into combat heavy games is because - particularly D&D and Pathfinder where there's often a board involved and everything's regimented to that board rather than games with more narrative level combat - there's only so many ways you can narrate 'I cast fireball' or 'I swing my sword'
Don't you love being put on death row because somebody puched you in the stomach?
Good times!
Intro Story: The fact that they were essentially forced into a role like that is trash. "You can play in the game, but you can only play a thing the party needs, and it has to be this race and have this background because I need someone in my story with this specific ability", then when that character dies, saying, "Well you have to stay around because my story won't work without someone with that specific ability"... Then either don't make your story about requiring that ability, or make a DMPC whose main role in the group is to use that ability. This is someone bringing in a player to fill a gap their group unintentionally made, which sucks, but they took it a step further by essentially saying "I made you a premade character to play as with no real motivation."
Not a hole into the Underdark... a well into the Undermountain. The central feature of the Yawning Portal and one of the most iconic places in the Forgotten Realms...
Durnan wouldn't be objectifying women either. That DM has issues...
Yeah, DM was wrong with the Blood Hunter player.
**IF** the class lets you grow to one size larger, then yes, you would no longer have disadvantage with heavy weapons.
Sounds like the DM just wasn’t willing to give the player *anything* if fear of them taking more. I understand not wanting to give an inch least they take a mile, but the inch in question was within the rules.
I thought the point was the class didn't actually grow you one size larger in the written rules, only as a homebrew mechanic in Critical Role.
the class does not make you grow a size. you transform but stay the same size that is why this has worked for most of D&D. and even using Chetney is not a good example since his form was Given a power boost by a god to do that.
Story 1: I swear each time I hear about 5e's neutered Ravenloft setting I weep for the modern players. Anyway, yes OP, cure spells hurt undead. inflict wounds heal them. Simple solution tho: make a mist walker that isn't a drone for whatever watered down BBEG is in this ravenloft-lite campaign.
Story 2: I hate Critical Role. Not because of anything its done or not done, but because fanboys/girls want to act out some sort of fanfic-larp and get mad when its not like they envisioned at 2 AM while staring at their matt mercer poster.
Onto the story: I can maybe think a veteran player wouldn't know seldom used rules like small creatures getting disadvantage blah blah blah, it can be hard to keep track but its hard to imagine an old timer from previous editions becoming such a suck up for matt mercer. Maybe OP meant it in that he's played a lot of 5e but if that's true then he should know these rules and is actively trying to cheat and using matt as a scapegoat.
Story 3: DM sounds like a rules lawyer. Someone who needs the games to be RAW at all times like its a chess game.
Story 4: was this some weird homebrew magic system the DM created? but this sounds like it would be either incredibly complicated to make, or easily broken. And OP is a furry, of course. So... this entire campaign is just... highschool. its harry potter and the nothing burger of redditban. It sounds like the kind of D&D where the DM is using the players as a therapy tool to relive their teenage years. it'd be sad if it weren't so pathetic.
Story 5: Since when do highschools sponsor gaming groups? Honestly. I once got a detention for reading the 3e monster manual at the ass end of biology.
Its also weird how the group of 15-17s would be 'that's too young' and then start 'objectifying' their friend's female character. I could believe both or neither happening but one but not the other is weird. Okay, as it goes on I could see young kids thinking this is how the world is. They see popular media and social media and think getting roofied is normal in skeevy bars. does it happen? maybe. But this sounds like an immature game of D&D from immature people. hardly a horror story.
Well. I'm not Matt Mercer, I never claimed to be Matt Mecer and I never aimed to be like him. That being said if you want to play with Matt Mercer, go to Matt Mercer.
MATT MERCER LITERALLY DIDN'T SAY THAT!
Aren't potions magic?
Yeah that always kind of bugged me.
It's not that Undead can't be magically healed, it's that healing spells like Cure Wounds specify that they don't work on Undead.
@@ethanrose9682 even then Reborn aren't undead
Call me crazy but I don't think that GM cares.
really just some crabby dms in this one , i just wonder do they perhaps think before they say these egotistical statements while pumping up their chest . i really feel for that last story and such a shame
I belive Matt did when it came to Chutney being a size larger for some rp thing. But that's besides the point. Whats wrong with small players using great weapons? That's just s basic sword for another race. It doesn't make sence to me and it defiantly felt like the dm could have talked about it better. I use the phrase " this is what we'll do for now I'll look up the rule after and get back to you guys"
I feel like for the second story it was mostly on the dm for not being experienced enough and having a kinda hard on for RAW not intended. Sure he can say later he was gona fenagle the subclass to allow water breathing but ....not to let the guy take up the same amount of space on the board just cause some other player might want to use the hybrid mechanic to get reach??? Just play a bug bear. Just use a polearm with the feat. Like. . Its also gona take that player 3 levels to get the transfor.ation and might not even work in the game world with those characters.
In the base rules, Small creatures have disadvantage on weapons with the Heavy property, primarily because how the heck is this halfling gonna use a human-sized Greatsword, with the handle being half as tall as he is? A human's longsword may be a halfling's Greatsword, but size-wise that just doesn't add up, and the most a Halfling will get out of a Halfling-sized Greatsword is about what you'd get with a Longsword in two hands. The Heavy property is just a mechanical explanation for simple logic, as annoying as it can sometimes be (Gotta get my Kobold's +2 Longbow she got off an NPC fighter resized to a Shortbow because the bow is twice her size).
that was only do to the mini. Matt still has chet rules wise at a small size. this is not intended. what is on the page is what is intended. if matt wanted you to change size than he would have put in on the class.
In DnD a goblin with 20 strength can't use a heavy crossbow without disadvantage, but a human with 9 strength can. I love DnD but if we have to be honest, the rules are full of bullshits like that.
I think at that point it's not about strength but physics, especially when it's more complicated than a stick.
yeah str is not a factor here. it is the fact the crossbow is at big if not bigger than you are.
While I did start playing after I was an edgy teenager I learned to play with some edgy man children who refused to grow up so it was just as bad as the last story
......Crispy comes out of the closet! lol
Matt Mercer, literally didn't say that.
Matt Mercer literally didn't say that
Hey. 3 for 4 on Matt Mercer mentions in a segment.
Matt Mercy literally did not say that 😅
First off...Im pretty Sure the "Cant be Heal because Undead".....is an actual RAW thing for some spells....soo xD maybe that new player should have at least looked that up before saying it was a "DM ruling" but last I checked Reborn aren't considered Undead??
Spells that wont heal "Undead":
Cure Wounds/Mass Cure Wounds
Healing Word/Mass Healing Word
Healing Spirit
Prayer of Healing
Spare the Dying
Raise Dead [other spells that bring you back to lifework on Undead]
Reincarnate requires a Humanoid so will only work on Humanoid Undead
Heal/Mass Heal
Power Word: Heal
Yeah they are considered humanoid and nowhere in their racial stuff does it say they can't be healed by cure wounds.
RAW, reborn aren't undead.
My champion 🏳️🌈
Second story is catastrophic. The player is annoying but there’s something off about the dm as well. I wouldn’t know how to explain it, just a feeling.
Also, the heavy weapon rule in this day and age… yawn. “High stake dnd” sure.
that is how the game is run. nothing is wrong with the DM telling a critical brat the word no.
Matt mercer didn't even say that
It was an intro story so maybe it just wasn't covered but between the personality and the way the paladin plays... isn't that on the player? I didn't hear anything about them being required to have no personality but, even if that were the case, deadpan matter-of-fact characters have some diversity between them based on what they choose to focus on and how they take things literally. Likewise, you can choose your spells and how you move throughout encounters.
The DM is DEFINITELY wrong for that bit at the end, where they try to guilt trip the OP into playing the same thing again, don't get me wrong. They're the DM so it's always possible to play the revived character as an NPC or create a new one whole cloth. I just don't see, given how the story is presented, what makes those other things the DM's fault when they explicitly asked the OP in a session 0 what they wanted and, when OP wasn't sure, gave them some stuff to help fit into the game.
OP admitted the personality of the character was probably their own fault. But it's worth noting the player was new and used as a tool for the party instead of being allowed to make a character that's actually their own.
Opener: yeah, this isbjust bad. No D&D better than bad.
1st. DM in the right. The guy was acting like a child not getting their way.
2nd story: this is a fame about story telling, and i had DMs prefer or encourage what this plaulyer did.if the DM had an issiue that was legit, they could ask how many actions that took
3rd.a closet case in your closet?
4th: well if that isn't a bunch of red flags, i don't know what is
Mat Mercer literally didn't say that.
Aren't goblins medium sized?
Small
Nope, that'd be hobgoblins and bugbears.
Day 4 of Asking Crispy to watch or read one piece
Interesting fact about GRRM...
The long running and loved Wild Cards superhero anthologies and setting was created out of a Superworld RPG that Martin GM'd for his local writer's group.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Cards
Matt Mercer literally didn't say that
Matt Mercer literally didn't say that
Matt Mercer literally didn't say that